Emerald High
by Red Emerald Productions
Summary: Sonic and friends get sent to a boarding school! Some see this as hell, others see it as an opportunity to be normal. But how normal is a school filled with super powered animals?  Contains OCs. Somewhat AU-ish.
1. So it begins

_Okay, this is a rewrite of "Welcome to Elements High". There are changes, however. First thing, the whole element thing... out the #$%ing window. That was a dumb idea, but if your character had powers, they will be used in this story  
_

_Second, this is gonna be somewhat of a "normal" school... well... as normal as a school filled with super powered animals can be... oh well._

_I DON'T own Sonic or any other official character. They're owned by Sega. _

_I DO own Kazo, Shark, Raptor, and Reflect._

_I DON'T own any other OCs. They are owned by the people who created them and let me used them. That's all I got. Now, on with the story!

* * *

_Sonic the Hedgehog woke up to the harsh sound of his alarm going off. Why the heck was it going off again? Oh yeah, that's right. Stupid government had to create that d—n school for Mobians. He slipped on his shoes, walked out of his room, and knocked on the door next to his.

"Kaz, get up," Sonic said.

"Go away," a voice moaned. Sonic shook his head, opened the door, and walked inside.

"Dude, seriously, we gotta get moving," Sonic said while tipping over the bed. A blue hedgehog fell out. His bright topaz yellow eyes glared into Sonic's emerald green eyes.

"What the heck dude?" the hedgehog yelled. Sonic rolled his eyes. How could twins have such different personalities?

"School. Let's get moving," Sonic turned to leave when he heard his brother muttering. "Kazo? Why are you complaining?" Actually, Sonic knew exactly why. He just asked so Kazo could vent a little.

"Why do we have to go to school?" Kazo practically yelled. "I hate large crowds of people! People I don't even know!" Sonic shook his head.

"Kaz, it'll be okay. You can finally make more friends, and maybe you can even get a girlfriend," Sonic assured his twin. Kaz sighed.

"I don't even know if I really want a girlfriend," The shy hedgehog admitted. Sonic looked at his brother with a look of mocked shock.

"Kaz… are you… gay?" Sonic asked. Sonic knew his brother wasn't, mind you. He just liked to tease his brother about it. Kazo's eyes widened in anger, and he punched his famous brother in the gut. Sonic reeled over and groaned.

"I told you, next time you asked that I'd punch you," Kazo reminded Sonic. Sonic nodded and stood back up. He never expected his brother to do that.

"Well, let's get going," Sonic slung his travel bag over his shoulder and went downstairs. Kazo quickly followed suit and went into the kitchen. As the two siblings sat at the table, their dad walked into the room.

"Good morning, my sons," he said.

"Hey Dad," Kazo quickly replied.

"Sup?" Sonic asked as he chowed on a chili dog.

"Well, Kaz," Dad said, "Now you're off to school… and you can get your education and become a CEO like your old man," Kazo sighed. He didn't want to go into business, but since Sonic wouldn't go into it for the world, Kaz's parents have been trying to force him to.

"You know Dad… I don't think I want to…," Kazo said hesitantly. Sonic groaned. He knew what was coming next…

"Honey!" Dad yelled. "Your son here isn't sure if he wants to be a CEO!" The blue blurs' mom walked in.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Kaz isn't sure if he wants to go into business,"

"Aw Kaz, you're so funny sometimes,"

"But I'm not joking!" Kazo said.

"That's right, he's going to be a CEO," Dad firmly stated.

"You're gonna be a CEO?" Mom said happily. "We should celebrate!" Kazo groaned and looked at Sonic.

"They're not listening!" he growled. "I could say anything I want and they wouldn't notice!' Sonic chuckled.

"Bet ya ten bucks that isn't true," Sonic challenged.

"You're on!" Kazo replied. He turned to his parents and said, "I'm gonna dye my fur green, get a nose ring, have a dragon tattooed to my arm, get a gold tooth and start calling everyone one 'dawg'," His parents ignored him and went about on their happy rant.

"Whoa, guess I owe ya ten bucks," Sonic muttered.

"Double or nothing?" Kazo challenged. Sonic smiled.

"Yeah, actually. Tell them something really shocking," Sonic said. Kazo smiled. He had the perfect thing. If he really meant this, it would rocked their family's life.

"**I'm gay**," Kazo said. Still, his parents ignored him.

"WTF?" Sonic wondered.

"You two should get going," Mom said after her happy rant. The twins nodded got their bags, and finally went outside, bags slung over their shoulders. The twins stood on the corner, waiting for the bus to come.

"Okay, Kaz, answer me this," Sonic began. "Why the flying duck are we waiting for the bus? I mean, we can go _way_ faster, and if we need to, we have our Extreme Gear..."

"Well, bro, do you know where it is?" was the reply. Sonic sighed, partly because his brother was right, and partly because he was getting impatient. His foot started to tap rapidly, a sign of his irritation. All this waiting was driving him _nuts_!

Finally, the bus arrived, making a faint screech as it came to a stop. Kazo took one look at the big, yellow monster and gulped.

"C'mon, bro. Remember, this is your chance to finally get away from Mom and Dad," the blue blur pointed out as he walked inside. With that knowledge instilled in his head, he scrambled up the short set of stairs.

It appeared that Tails was the only one on, because there were no other heads above the seats. Then again, it was possible that if there were others, they were asleep or too short to be seen. The golden fox waved Sonic over while Kazo went to find an empty seat.

"Hey, Sonic!"

"Yo, Tails!" Sonic said happily as he sat down. "Ready for school?"

Tails' response began with a sigh, "In a word, no." The bus revved to life and drove off down the road.

Sonic snickered before yawning. "Wake me up when we get there..." The hedgehog laid his head against the back of the seat to catch a few winks. Kazo was about to do the same when he was slightly lurched from a sudden stop. It looked like Knuckles and some others were getting on. Naturally, he kept his head down so that he wouldn't be noticed.

A female's voice caused him to look up.

"Um... is it okay if I sit here?"

Kazo felt a blush creep up the back of his neck. A normal reaction, sadly. The girl was a hedgehog with golden fur, as if she was in a Super Form. Her eyes were the same color, with a hint of brown... perhaps amber? Like most females, she had an outfit. What he noticed at a glance that she wore a gray hoodie, green shorts, and blue converses. Also, she had brown hair, and her bangs were parted to the sides.

Kazo gulped and tried to say something, _anything_! Yet, the words died in his throat. Giving up, he sighed and nodded his head. She sat down just before the bus drove off.

Deciding it would be best to make a new friend, the girl decided to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Shayla. What's your name?"

"I-I'm Kazo." Kazo groaned inwardly. Was he _ever_ going to stop stuttering? He closed his eyes slowly. Perhaps some sleep would make him calmer…

Oh, great, _now_ what?

Kazo turned his head up after he felt someone tapping his head. He recognized this girl easily. She was a female echidna with the same fur color as Knuckles', yet she had blue eyes. She was also wearing her usual outfit: a blue and white striped top with a pair of jeans; blue, fingerless gloves; and navy goggles on her forehead.

This was Vitani, one of the twin sisters of Knuckles the Echidna.

"Hi, Kaz!" Vitani greeted happily.

"Hey."

"Um… do you know where Shadow is? I don't see him on the bus… I hope he's not sick…"

Kazo rolled his eyes. What was with so many girls falling for that guy? However, he didn't want to blow her off. "From what I know, he's driving his motorcycle to school."

"Oh… well, if you see him—"

"Leave the guy alone, sis," Knuckles interrupted. That girl really needed to control her emotions.

"Why don't you just shut up, Knuckles?" Vitani snapped, obviously becoming defensive of her feelings and Knuckles' attitude towards them.

Knuckles sighed, rubbing his temples with one of his large hands. "Why couldn't I have brothers?" he muttered to the heavens above.

Kazo slid lower into his seat—ignoring Shayla's confused expression–and closed his eyes. It wasn't long before he drifted off into dreamland.

It had to have been three hours later, at least, when the bus soon made a louder screech and a sharper lurch, purposely doing so to wake up students like Sonic and Kazo. As soon as the doors opened, the multitude poured out into a large yard and gazed at the building.

"So, this is Emerald High, eh?" Sonic commented.

"Yep. Beauty, ain't it?" someone replied. Sonic looked to his right and saw an orange shark standing there. He was wearing ripped jeans, and there were two chains wrapped around his chest, suspended by his left shoulder.

"Hey, Shark!" Kazo said happily.

"Yo." Shark then turned to the golden kit nearby with a grin. "Hey, Tails, you gonna help me build that car?"

"You bet!" Tails said, matching his grin. Shark was good buddies with Tails, seeing as how they had a knack for machines and shared a high IQ. So, it was no surprise for anyone to see them working together on something. Tails was about to follow him, when a blue shape was running toward him.

When it stopped, it was revealed to be another kit, not much older than Tails. He had onyx eyes to complement his sapphire coat, and three tails. His outfit consisted of a light silver undershirt, a darker gray jacket, and silver bands on his wrists and ankles.

"Tails!" the fox practically shouted.

"Bakuda! How are you?" Tails said excitedly.

"Great!"

"Bakuda! Perfect!" Shark said, turning to the kit. "I just finished my new armor design. You and I have _got_ to spar sometime."

"I don't know, Shark-san," Bakuda replied whilst scratching his head. "Last time we did, I nearly tore off your arm…"

"That's because that was the BA Mark VI. The Mark VII should let me handle your power."

"That's what you said about the other six versions, Shark-san," he pointed out.

"True, but _this_ time, I figured out the best design!"

"You based it off of Master Chief's, didn't you?" Tails said with a smirk.

"Yeah," Shark stated, somewhat embarrassed. The foxes laughed merrily at their friend's embarrassment, but the jubilee was interrupted when Bakuda felt someone sniffing him. He turned around to give the intruder a piece of his mind, but stopped in wonder.

How the heck was a _dinosaur_ around in this time?

The dino was easily recognizable—if one paid attention to archaeology–as a Velociraptor. He had brown scales, blue eyes, and his head was curved back into a single spike. He wore nothing, so they could see he had only three toes on each foot, with the middle one in the shape of a sickle.

"That's weird," he stated, his high-pitched voice revealing that he was only a kid. "Even though you're a fox, you smell like a monkey."

Shark growled and whirled around to glare at the dino. "That was rude, Raptor."

Obviously, the boy didn't like being challenged, because he replied with, "Screw you, Shark!"

Shark, being older, wasn't about to let his younger friend cause an annoyance. He growled again while picking him up by the skin on his throat. It wasn't enough to choke him, but for Raptor, it wasn't very comfortable.

"Falcon…" Shark chanted while drawing back a fist.

Now, those of you who know what is about to happen, realize that only one man can pull off the real deal. However, the attack you are about to witness has _very_ similar effects.

"Oh, crap…" Raptor moaned. This was gonna hurt…!

"PAWNCH!"

Shark smirked as his fist made solid contact, the force behind it equaling the force a baseball endures when hit by a pro. Poor little Rap was sent soaring into the sky. However, right before he disappeared, he let out a yell: "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

The only evidence of Raptor's takeoff was the dot in the sky that faded after a second or two.

* * *

As all of this was going on, Kazo practically scrambled up the nearest tree he could find, away from the crowd. Of all the places… didn't he tell them he was _afraid_ of large crowds? Surely this had to be a joke… right? Letting out a shaky breath, he sat down to relax his nerves.

"Hey, I was here first!"

Kazo nearly jumped out of his skin, but managed to gulp and face the person who had shouted at him. It was a light brown, female cat, but… why did she have bat wings? She wore a red hoodie, and he could see a small bit of her fluorescent green undershirt. She had dark jeans, made to look like there was a hole on each knee. She wore short boots and fingerless gloves that reached her elbows. She had darker brown hair that reached to the small of her back, and two bangs covered one of her eyes. The one covered was blue, and the one uncovered was green.

Her ears were flattened against her head—a sign of agitation. Her tail was wrapped possessively around the branch, meaning she really wanted to be left alone.

"Oh… I-I-I'm s-sorry…" Kazo inwardly swore before of that stutter. "I-I'll move…" The teen easily felt his face flush red. However, to his surprise, the cat's ears—which he then realized were bat ears–went back to normal, and her tail wasn't so tightly wrapped around the branch.

"On second thought, it's okay. You don't have to move," she said with a smile. Given her experiences, the few people she could trust were the shy ones. "The name's Charity."

Grateful for the change of mind, Kazo sat down to face the girl. "Kazo. So… what are you doing up here, anyway?"

Charity sighed, resting her head against the bark of the trunk. "I… don't really like being around a lot of people."

"Know that feeling." This caused Charity to look over. He had a similar problem? This was a bit interesting. At least she wasn't alone in her problems. "S-So, do you know when orientation is?"

"Yeah, it's at nine o'clock."

Kazo's face fell. It was only a quarter after eight! That meant he had to wait a whole forty-five minutes!

"I'm not gonna last that long…" he groaned. "Maybe some boarding will pass the time." He leapt out of the tree and landed beside his bags. He then rummaged through them to find his trusty skateboard, and ran off. "Later, Charity!"

He quickly turned the corner into an open lot that was perfect for skateboarding. He decided to warm up with a few Ollies and Nollies before going into some insane kick flips and manuals. He was totally in his element now. Nothing but the wind on his face, and… the feeling of being watched? Kazo shook his head, thinking he was imagining things. Yet, as the minutes progressed, he couldn't shake it off. So, he turned around to look at the person, when a sharp blush crawled up his neck. _Another girl!_

She was a light green hedgehog with red eyes. Her quills were slightly longer than Amy's, and the black tips were curled. She wore a red tank top with a white vest, a pair of black jeans, and black and pink shoes. Her white gloves were embellished with a blue star, and she had a hat with the same pattern.

"Wicked moves there, dude," she said with a grin. Kazo's mind was whirring. This girl was really into skating and skaters. _No one_ had watched him that much! By now, his blush had spread to his cheeks. This didn't go unnoticed by the hedgehog. "So, what's your name?"

"Th-thanks… Um… I'm Kazo."

"Lily. Well, I'd better get going." She smiled again before turning around. "See ya around."

Kazo gulped, trying to get some moisture back in his throat. He kept staring forward, even after she had left. He then dropped slightly, gripping the bottom of his stomach with one hand and holding himself up with the other. Why was he feeling so strange? Why were his legs feeling like jelly?

"What the heck is going on…?"

* * *

Shadow the Hedgehog pulled up into a parking space on his motorcycle, sighing as he looked at the school. This was pointless. He didn't need such mundane things as education. He'd learned plenty during his time on the ARK, so why were they so insistent on him coming? After shaking his head over the thought, he turned around and lightly smacked the hedgehog sitting on the back of his ride.

"Reflect. Get up. We're here."

The hedgehog Shadow spoke to was similar to him, but his streaks were green, and three of his quills were pointed down.

"Thanks, bro…" Reflect groaned as he got off the cycle.

"Don't mention it. _Ever_." Shadow then growled as his ears flattened. Reflect hid a grin as he realized the source of the elder's discomfort. A pack of fan-girls was approaching fast. Once his brother _walked_ off, he hopped onto the ground and strolled along. This place was pretty peaceful…

WHAM!

Groaning as he held a hand to his muzzle and forehead, he managed to take a look at who he had bumped into.

"Watch where you're going!"

The voice was definitely female, and she sounded ticked. Reflect rubbed his forehead as he took notice of her appearance. She was an albino feline, and was probably from a rich family, if her black dress was any indication. It had spaghetti straps; small frills on the wrists, waist, and collar; and a gray heart in the middle of the chest. She also had black, knee high boots and elbow-length gloves. Her hair fell to her shoulders, and there was black bow near her crown.

"Sorry about that," Reflect said while backing up. He wasn't as strong as his brother, and didn't want to get involved in a fight. "I should've been paying attention."

"You bet your sweet life you should have," she growled. This girl had some temper issues, if Reflect had anything to say about her.

"Anyway, I'm Reflect. Your name is…?"

The cat rolled her eyes before answering. "Natalia."

"Nice name. Anyways… Sorry for running into you and… I'm gonna leave now." Reflect quickly Chaos Controlled out of her reach. Natalia huffed before walking away, not realizing a certain other black hedgehog was watching.

"Hey, Shadow!" a voice called out.

"Silver Wolf," Shadow replied nonchalantly as he turned around. Obviously, Silver Wolf had silver fur, but there was a black stripe going across his head, covering his red eyes. He had gold shoes, blue jeans, a white shirt, red gauntlets, a red jacket and a medallion with a flame on it.

"So, what're ya doing?"

"Just watching Reflect." Shadow's tone was as even as usual, not even showing a hint of emotion. It sometimes made him want to wince.

"Still? I mean, he may be your little brother, but he's old enough to take care of himself."

This time, Shadow's voice carried a hint of determination and… protectiveness? "I promised Maria I would, so I will. I've already nearly broken one promise. I'm _not_ going to break this one."

Silver Wolf shrugged, but he understood. "Alright. Whatever suits you."

* * *

Raptor finally came falling back to solid ground, yet like a cat, managed to land on his feet in a way that prevented the shock from injuring him. He rubbed his neck to rid it of the kinks before grumbling.

"Man, why does Shark have to be such a sourpuss?"

"Nice falling there," Raptor heard a voice say. "How high up was that?"

Raptor turned to see a porcupine looking at him. He had purple fur, green eyes, gray sneakers, blue jeans, a white long-sleeve, and a black leather jacket.

"Oh! Hey, Xero!" Raptor greeted before scratching his chin. "Hmm… Well, judging how I passed through a cloud, so in feet…" He then smirked. "IT'S OVER 9000!"

"Nice. Very nice," Xero let out before chuckling.

Raptor cracked his neck before noticing a neon green wolf off in the distance. "Hey, is that who I think it is?" Raptor covered his forehead with his arm, allowing him to see more clearly. "Let's see… white boots with red and black stripes going up the sides… red and white armor that looks like a vest… the armor has spikes on the shoulders and the top of the back… I knew it! That _is_ Bolt!" Raptor ran off while yelling. "Yo, Bolt! What up, dawg?"

"Hey, Raptor!" Bolt yelled back. Raptor finally got within enough distance to where he could talk normally. "Not much here, you?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Got shot out of a cannon, chased by rabid dogs, fought off a robot, got punched in the face… and now I'm talkin' to you."

"Yep. Just another day at the office." Bolt then suddenly smirked. "Oh, and Rap? Envy's coming."

"Aw crud," Raptor muttered right before the weight of a young wolf landed on him. The wolf, Envy, had black and silver fur. A gray stripe went across her navy eyes. Her outfit consisted of a red shirt embellished with a blue rose, Levi™ jeans, black and red boots, and a gold locket suspended around her neck by a silver necklace.

"Tag! You're it, Rap-kun!" she giggled before running off.

"Hey! That wasn't fair, Envy! Get back here!" he ran after the wolf, unleashing a rather heated stream of colorful words.

Bolt simply stood there, chuckling. This year was going to be interesting, no question.

* * *

_So, that was it! Please press that big green button and review. PLEASE! Oh... and I know I missed a lot of characters. I know... this is a lot to do. I'll get them in. I swear!  
_


	2. First day

Sonic walked into his first classroom trying to sort out everything that he learned in orientation. They had a block schedule, which meant they had eight classes, but only four a day. Each class was two hours long. After school, they could go off campus, but they had to be in the dorms by 11:00 PM.

The blue blur sat down next to his brother, who was doodling on a piece of paper.

"Good thing this is art class," Sonic commented. "Whatcha drawing?" Kazo held up a finger, signaling Sonic to wait. After a few minutes, he held up a picture of a chibi Sonic asleep during class. Sonic chuckled. His brother was always good at drawing.

"Sonic!" a very familiar, very _unwanted_ voice called out. Sonic groaned as Amy sat down in front of him. "Isn't this great?"

"Just great," Sonic sarcastically groaned. Kazo rolled his eyes as Amy sighed dreamily. His brother was such a chick magnet, and he always got confused for him. After finishing his drawing, the blue lightning looked up and noticed Charity looking for a place to sit. He waved her over and pointed to the seat next to him, which she sat in.

"So what do you think of school so far?" Kazo asked. Charity shrugged.

"It's not bad, but I didn't make that many friends…"

"Give it time," Kazo reassured. "We just started. I'd say we both got a good start already."

Charity smiled. Kazo turned around when he felt Sonic tapping his shoulder.

"Are you a clone of Kazo or something?" Sonic grinned, his arms crossed behind his head.

"Huh?"

"I mean, whatever happened to you needing a whole year to be able to talk to a pretty girl without stuttering?" Sonic's smirk grew wider at Kazo's sudden blush.

"… I guess that's because we understand each other… I mean, we both hate big crowds and all," Kazo finally said with a shrug and a grin. Sonic ruffled his bro's hair.

"I'm proud of you, bud."

Shark sat down at a table. He muttered something about stupid governments as he began to sketch a car design. He didn't need school. He was a genius, and his plan was to open a machine shop with Tails. His future was orange hybrid was so busy grumbling he didn't notice the black wolf sitting beside him. The wolf had a white stripe across his red eyes. A blue sleeveless shirt covered his top and torn jeans covered his legs. His shoes were green and red, plus he had a choker with a light blue locket on it.

"Yo," the wolf greeted. Shark looked up.

"Oh, hey Hanyou," Shark replied with a toothy grin. "What's up?"

"Too many boys trying to win Envy's heart," Hanyou growled.

Shark chuckled."You worry too much about her."

"Maybe…" Hanyou then had a sheepish grin on his face. "Sorry for bothering you with that, _Aniki_." Shark rolled his eyes and grinned as he heard that word. _Aniki_, if his Japanese wasn't too rusty, was a more casual form of 'brother'. He couldn't help but shake his head at the thought that it wasn't just Hanyou who had used that word. Several people saw him as a brother, it seemed.

The two then noticed a tall and muscular wolf walk into the room. His fur was like the color of sand and his eyes were steel gray. He had brown cargo pants with black steel toe boots, a forest green shirt, and black goggles with red lenses. He quickly took a seat by himself.

"Looks like a new kid," Shark noted.

"He looks lonely. We should go sit by him." Shark nodded, got up, and walked over.

"Yo, I'm Shark," Shark introduced. "That's Hanyou." The two sat on either side of the newcomer. "What's your name?"

"Siegfried." The wolf's voice was layered by a German accent.

"Huh. Unusual name," Shark said.

"This coming from a guy named Shark," Hanyou shot.

"Shark's not my real name, but touché."

Siegfried chuckled. This was the fastest he made friends… at least, he hoped they were friends.

The students quieted down as their teacher walked in. She seemed friendly enough. Once she got their total attention, she quickly took attendance before grinning. She gave each student a sketchbook before explaining that the students, by the end of the year, would learn how to master the art of shading while practicing basic 3-D techniques. However, she was a very lenient teacher, so the first day was just a doodle-day. They couldn't doodle in their scrapbooks, however. They had to use their own paper.

Kazo was working on more drawings, when he felt Charity tap his shoulder. "What is it, Charity?"

"Think I can borrow a piece? I left my notebook back in my dorm." Kazo grinned and handed her a few sheets before returning to his latest sketch. "What's that?" Kazo stopped for a few seconds.

"Not sure just yet. Sometimes I free draw. Y'know, make a few shapes before actually getting an image. Just ask Sonic."

"Really?" Charity looked at the slightly older and much more famous hedgehog, who was nodding with a grin.

"If you ever come over, you should remind me to show you his picture album. It's totally full of drawings," Sonic said, enjoying Kazo's reaction. "I mean, last I counted, there's 345 postcard sized drawings and 50 regular size." Sonic suddenly looked back in reminisce. "I can remember how hard it was to make sure I was right. I knew that I just had to divide the area of each thing by four for the postcards, but he sometimes crammed one behind the other.

"You actually used math to find out how many pictures I made?" Kazo grinned. "I think I'll have to re-evaluate you, bro. That's a pretty long equation to solve." Sonic's ears flattened.

"Huh?"

"Well, cause you sure don't understand the equation Highway + Incline = Not Intended for Skateboarding very well."

The joke caused all of the students to fall out of their seats in laughter. Sonic, however, was trying his hardest to fight down the encroaching blush. It wasn't long though until he laughed along with the rest of them. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad, after all.

Siegfried walked into his next class, which was some type of history, unsure of what to do. His only friends probably weren't in this—wait a minute; there they were, in the back. He sat down by Hanyou, and the trio watched the people that walked in: Raptor, Sonic, Silver, Shadow, and several others.

Hanyou sighed. Maybe she wasn't in this—wait, there she was! Amy Rose walked into the room, her books clutched close to her chest.

"Hey, Hanyou, you're drooling again," Shark said with a smirk. Hanyou blinked and wiped the saliva from his muzzle. He then noticed that Shark and Siegfried had huge grins on their faces.

"What?"

"Someone's got a crush~!" Shark said in a singsong voice. "Someone should ask her out, unless he doesn't have the balls to."

"Someone should shut their mouth before they get a fist in their face," Hanyou snarled. The teacher walked in at that moment, so Shark couldn't make his snappy comeback.

This class had to be the longest class _ever_. Each passing minute felt like an hour! What was it with history classes always seeming to take the longest? Probably because their teacher would go on and on about something in a page. Shark knew that if _he_ taught the class, which he could if he wanted, he would be way ahead of this guy. In fact, in the time it took the teacher to discuss one section, Shark, Hanyou, Siegfried, and Shadow had finished their first assignment and read the chapter twice. The four only had their notebooks out in case there was something new on the slide show they had to watch.

Finally, once an hour had passed, the teacher finished his monologue and left, promising to be back in fifteen minutes. The class burst into individual conversations. Well, Raptor was taking up most of any conversation, interrupting others until they shut him out of their business. So, now he was bored. He walked towards an open window.

"This is madness!" he yelled, obviously getting everyone's attention. Shark smirked, putting up a finger to tell everyone to stay quiet. He snuck behind his younger friend.

"Madness?" he asked, the evil smirk on his face growing. Raptor, knowing what was about to happen, gulped without turning around to show his wide eyes. This was gonna hurt! "This… is… SPARTA!"One mighty kick from Shark sent Raptor sailing out the window. Shark grinned and shut it, hoping that would prevent the brat from showing back up in class. Since their teacher had locked the door, all entrances were null.

After the room reached a comfortable level of noise, Shadow smirked. He then opened his book to make sure there wasn't anything else the teacher hadn't covered. He flipped through, but upon reaching a certain page, the next one began to shift by itself.

"Huh?" Shadow said, curious. He lifted the next page, and his eyes narrowed as he imagined seeing Raptor's head above the book. No one else was looking, so he rubbed his eyes and looked underneath his desk to see if Raptor had somehow come back and had an intangibility technique. Nothing. He lifted his head back up to glare at the raptor head, which was smirking. Raptor opened his mouth. "The heck?"

"DR. OCTAGONAPUS BLAH!" Raptor yelled. Shadow's muscles clenched from the adrenaline surge. Thanks to his enhanced reflexes, he managed to duck and avoid the possibly lethal blast. When he lifted his head back up, Raptor was gone. Yet, the new hole in the ceiling proved it wasn't a hallucination. Shadow took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"What was that?" he asked out loud. Now, most of the students were too afraid to open their books. Once Shadow calmed down completely, he heard those blasted words again.

"DR. OCTAGONAPUS BLAH!" The ebony hedgehog turned to see Sonic barely avoid the beam that came out of his book. Silver gulped and slowly opened his. It wasn't that he was curious, but he needed to finish his notes! As soon as he got to the page he needed, Raptor popped out, but the ivory hedgehog used his psychokinetic abilities to close Raptor's mouth and force him back into the book. The dino wasn't able to do a thing.

"This school is so weird," Silver commented. Shark knew he had to end this before Rap sent someone to the hospital or worse. He opened his book, already knowing Rap would appear. Without batting an eye, he waited for Raptor to charge.

"DR. OCTAGONAPUS BL —" Shark slammed his book shut. A muffled explosion was heard, and smoke came out from the pages. The dolphin/shark opened his book to see that Raptor's head was slightly crushed. The pages were unharmed, so that meant he wouldn't have to pay. Rap coughed, releasing the smoke from his lungs before shaking away his injuries."Okay, I'll stop," Raptor moaned. "Can you help me out?" Shark reached into the book and pulled Raptor out. The dinosaur stumbled back to his seat. Siegfried had a look of confusion on his face.

"What's with you?" Shark asked. "You look like you just saw your first mermaid."

"That stuff the kid did is just… impossible!" he replied.

Hanyou cleared his throat. "According to all known laws of reality, Raptor-san should not exist and the stuff he does is impossible. However he doesn't care what we think is impossible and continues to do what he does anyway."

With that, the teacher came back, and class continued. After a long forty-five minutes passed, the bell rang, and the school population rushed off to everyone's favorite class: LUNCH!

Normally, most lunchrooms have a limited quantity of food since a county warehouse supplies the schools. However, since Emerald High was the only school for Mobians, there were more faculty members that could prepare home-quality meals fresh and easy. Because of this, there was a buffet available. So, anyone with a huge appetite would be satisfied. A prime example was Bakuda. With his smile threatening to split his face, he had gathered two starter plates and began to chow down at a rapid pace. A certain Velociraptor quietly watched until Bakuda finished ten full plates.

"Wow, you sure do eat a lot… and really fast," Raptor commented. Bakuda stopped and looked at Raptor.

"So?" the blue kit asked.

"What's your full name?"

Bakuda wasn't exactly sure why Raptor was asking, but it wouldn't hurt to tell him. "Son Bakuda."

The next thing that happened would have everyone startled for minutes. Raptor grinned and jumped on the table before shouting: "I knew it! That's why you smelled like a monkey! You're really a Saiyan! OMG! O-M-G! I can't believe I'm meeting a real live Saiyan! And-and-and considering the fact that your family name is 'Son', you gotta be one of Goku's kids! Oh… my… God!" This was followed by a fan-boy screech.

Bakuda was dumbfounded. How did Raptor figure all this out? He had only told Tails and Shadow… Now everyone knew… The kit fought down a deep blush of embarrassment. "How d-did you know?"

"Are you kiddin' me? I've read every issue of Dragon Ball like, 300 times and watched every uncut and unedited episode of Dragon Ball Z like, 100 times!" he explained. "The only thing I don't get is how come you weren't in any of 'em… I guess the only thing that makes sense is that you were brought here during the time skip."

Bakuda blinked. This kid wasn't any usual fan. He was a total _geek_!

Sonic sat down next to his brother, his tray loaded down with chili dogs. "Yo."

"Are you stalking me?" Kazo joked. However, his humorous attitude vanished upon seeing Sonic's suddenly serious expression.

"Not by my own will… Ma's orders," Sonic grumbled as he took a bite. Kazo growled whilst tightly clenching his fists. Mom _still_ treated him like a freakin' baby!

"Sonic, you still eating those heart attacks on a bun?" a voice called out. The Super Sonic Bros. (hehe, Mario puns) looked up, relieved of the momentary tension, and saw a snow-white hedgehog.

This hedgehog had shoulder length, quill-like hair that covered his pointy ears halfway and a long ponytail that went to the small of his back. His tail, which wasn't covered by his pants, was strangely longer and monkey-like. His eyes were a deep ocean blue instead of the expected red. He wore a sleeveless and collared white undershirt and a sleeveless, green, v-shaped vest. The bottom of his shirt was styled with the bottom cut out in the shape of an upside down V, exposing his lower stomach. His gloves were silver and black; his pants were blue and form-fitting, secured with a brown belt. A dagger hung from his waist, and he had black and silver boots made of metal. (Sheesh Azure Millennium, you really have a lot of spare time, don't ya?)

"Why pick on me, Edge?" Sonic asked. He then pointed to the corn dogs on Kazo's tray. "Kaz still eats those strokes on a stick."

"Oh, c'mon, corn dogs aren't as bad as chili dogs," the other hedgehog said defensively.

"The heck they ain't!" Sonic countered. "Your food is battered and deep-fried!"

"Grammatical error! Your argument is invalid!" Kazo pulled out a rubber stamp and slammed it onto the Azul Wind's forehead. The word "REJECTED" then stood out against the cobalt fur. The younger chuckled. "Courtesy of the Grammar Nazi." Sonic growled whilst pouting. Sometimes he wished the Grammar Nazi, AKA their cousin Hiashi, never existed!

Edge chuckled as he watched the two brothers squabble. These two could do some really funny things! However, a prodding sensation in his tail caused him to turn around. He then grumbled under his breath. Why, why? Of all the people to poke him, why _Raptor?_

"Dude, the tail _is_ real!" Raptor awed. Edge rolled his eyes at the kid's train of thought. Sure, his tail didn't match his species, but it didn't mean it was fake! "You know what you remind me of?"

Edge hated to respond, but he did just to get rid of the pest. "What?"

"A Super Saiyan 5," Rap grinned. Edge face-palmed. Rap even knew about the fan-created Super Saiyans? If there was a type of person worse than a geek, Rap was a perfect match for sure! Kazo took pity on the silver hedgehog, so he decided to give Raptor something else to do.

"Hey, isn't that Charmy over there?" Kazo pointed to the bee.

"Oh, yeah! I should say hi to him. Later!" Rap walked off to talk to his best friend.

Meanwhile, Shark and Hanyou found themselves a table and started eating. Well, Shark did. Hanyou had noticed Envy talking to Espio, and his overprotective instincts were on overdrive. He was ready to go over there and interrupt, but Shark placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. The wolf tried again, with the same results.

"Dude, stop it!" he snarled at the orange hybrid.

"No. Let it go, Hanyou. You need to stop meddling with your sister's social life." Hanyou wrenched his arm out of Shark's grip.

"She's my sister and I'll protect her as I see fit! Bug off!" With that statement to slightly freeze Shark, he bolted for the table, but Shark managed to tackle him. This resulted in a very fierce wrestling match between the two. It went on for several minutes, neither one gaining an edge over the other. The Super Sonic Bros. and Edge watched the 'show of manhood' in amusement, but when they heard the snarls growing in ferocity, they knew they had to stop it soon.

"So… do they get the slash, the speed, or the spark this time?" Edge asked. From the sound of it, they had broken up the two several times before.

"It's the Blue Blusher's turn," Sonic teased, using his own nickname for Kazo.

"I hate you…" he muttered. Kazo knew that if he tried to break them up, it would end badly… for _him_. After taking a gulp of air, he slowly walked toward them until he was in range. Which was actually really, really close. He concentrated on his hand and built up a spark on the tip of his index finger. After pointing carefully, he launched the static spark at Hanyou's leg. The wolf yelped, and out of pure instinct, he turned and punched Kazo across his face. The force behind it was more of a launching attack rather than one to cause injury. So while he didn't make a gash or a bruise, he did send the poor twin flying into a tower of empty milk crates on the other side of the cafeteria. The small containers then fell on top of him, burying him under cardboard and plastic.

"Oh, crap," Hanyou muttered. Thankfully, the electricity-affiliated hedgie managed to dig himself out. He was definitely okay, but his rolling eyes showed major disorientation.

"You alright, bro?" Sonic asked after running up to him.

"But Mommy… Sonic ate all the ice cream sandwiches…"

Sonic groaned. This was so not helping! He then slapped Kazo across the face firmly. "Snap out of it!" he yelled. He had done it plenty of times before, so he knew that would wake him up.

"Aw, man…" Kazo said after standing upright. "Feels like I got hit by a semi."

Sonic carried his brother to a chair and set him down. Kaz, in turn, held his pounding head in silence. Why did it always happen to him…? He then heard a slight shuffling noise, so he turned to see who had sat near him. It was Lily, and she wore a concerned frown.

"You okay?" she asked, placing a hand on Kazo's throbbing forehead. "You might need these." She handed him two gel-capsule pills and a glass of water. "I always carry some painkillers in case I get a nasty injury."

Kazo managed a shaky grin and took the medicine, blushing at her thoughtfulness.

"T-Thanks… I-I-I'll be fine," he managed to stutter. He didn't notice Sonic walking off with a chuckle.

'That was easy!' Sonic grinned. The bell rang not long after, causing many of the students to groan. However, they eventually made their way out and to their next class. In Sonic's case, it was English. He knew that it was going to be quite boring. 'Really… Why do I have to learn about a language I've spoken since I was two?' He looked around and noticed that half the class already fell asleep. Dang! Class didn't even start yet!

* * *

_Finally_, English was over! Now Sonic could focus on his last class of the day. He looked down once more at his schedule.

"Sweet! Phys Ed!" He zoomed down the hallways and stairs until he reached the gymnasium. He walked it to see that the area was empty. Obviously, it meant he was the first to arrive. The minutes went by as more students began to fill up part of the floor. They sat there waiting until a rather bulky crocodile walked in.

"Alright, maggots!" he began to command. Was he a drill sergeant or something? "I am Mr. Bustyerbutt! Don't expect an easy time in this class! For yer first day, yer playin' Capture the Flag in the woods behind the school!"

Sonic silently muttered, "There's a forest behind the school?"

"The losers have to do five-hundred push-ups! If it's a draw, _everyone_ has to do a thousand push-ups!" He then took a few steps back so he could look everyone in the eye. "I don't wanna see any slacking off! Do anything to win. I mean **ANYTHING**! If you have powers, use em! I can't care if you have to use a #*~ing nuke! _**WIN**_!" That last word nearly knocked several of the students backwards. It was obvious that this man had strong lungs and vocal cords to match. "You have thirty minutes to prepare! Get any gear you need and meet me in the woods!"

With that, the teacher jogged out, and the students scattered. This was going to be one heck of a game…

_So that's it! Next chapter is Capture the Flag! For convenience sake, here's a list of the teams:_

_Team 1- Shark, Kazo, Edge, Espio, Raptor, Knuckles, Silver, Hanyou, Envy_

_Team 2- Sonic, Shadow, Bakuda, Charity, Natalia, Silver Wolf, Siegfried, Bolt_

_One last note: Crunchiecat… sorry about the "bat wing" thing. I could've sworn I saw it in the review!_

_This is Kazo the Hedgehog. See ya next time!_


	3. Capture the Flag: Part 1

Hey! This is Kazo! Man, it's been a while… So I'm making it up with this insanely long 2-parter! (Almost 40 pages if put together!) By the way… Mega Man! Man, I got hooked to the series over the summer… So you may see a fanfic about it from me soon… Along with all these stories…

* * *

It was absolute chaos as the seventeen students rushed through the halls to grab their gear. After all, with permission to go all out in the forest, they needed the best of what they had. This was going to be the mother of all sporting events, no doubt about it.

* * *

Shark weaved his way through the halls as he ran to his dorm, slamming the door and activating his security system. With that, he could get whatever he needed without interruptions. Allowing a smirk to cross his face, he pulled out several suitcases from underneath his bed. The first he opened contained his signature chain. He gently set that aside whilst opening the others, revealing a thin, black bodysuit.

"Bakuda ain't gonna know what hit him…" he smirked, showing some of his razor sharp teeth. He slipped on the body suit, which stretched very slightly while conforming to his body. He then opened the third, fourth, and fifth, revealing several pieces of armor. Some were black and small, while the larger pieces were styled in camouflage. He quickly slipped them on and locked them in place, looking for all the world a soldier in tank armor. He then opened the sixth case and pulled out a helmet. It was camo, like his armor, and had an amber visor. However, what made this special was the extension on top. It was made to fit over his fin, and the very edge was as sharp as a blade. He grinned upon looking in the mirror. His opponents were sure to freak out. After that, he wrapped his chain around his arm.

The hybrid then grabbed some silver orbs, leaping out the window after latching them in a container attached to his leg.

* * *

Kazo, upon entering his and Sonic's dorm, looked around before he pulled out a suitcase from underneath his bed. He grabbed the contents: two metal bands that fit around his wrists. He slipped them on, allowing himself to smirk arrogantly before exiting.

* * *

Edge, for some odd reason, was unwillingly giving a piggyback to an overly excited Raptor, who had his hands latched around his forehead.

"Raptor! For the last time, get offa me!" he rapidly shook his head, desperate to shake his teammate off. Edge knew what he needed, and was on his way to get it, but Raptor just kept him going elsewhere!

"Don't be such a sourpuss!" he tsk'ed, grinning like a kid that had just gotten ice cream. "We're a team, right?" Edge nodded, groaning mentally. "And teammates gotta trust each other, right?" Another nod. "Then trust me when I say that we're gonna crush the competition with what I'm gonna show ya!"

"Can you just gimme a hint? Please?" Edge practically whined. If there was _one_ thing he hated, it was being kept in the dark. He was going insane trying to figure out what it was!

"Remember the… rumbling this morning?" Edge nodded, remembering how his ears picked up a rumbling sound towards the unoccupied back of the school. "Well, that rumbling was me and Shark stashing something underground. You're—gonna—love it."

With that, the hedgehog darted to the back of the school, running out the door as he heard his comrade's directions being yelled in his ears. Upon reaching his destination, he let Raptor off and watched as the little dino punched a light portion of the wall. The brick surprisingly slid back, and the ground began to sink. It was a ramp leading to an underground chamber.

Unable to think of words, Edge let out a low whistle.

"C'mon! This way!" Edge silently followed Raptor down the ramp, careful not to slip. Upon reaching the bottom, he could practically _feel_ his eyes widen to a considerable diameter. There, before his very being, was a monster of a vehicle. It was about a foot taller than himself, and had monster tires that went up to his chest. It looked like a large four-wheeler he'd seen humans drive around, but it was so much more than that. With its trademark forest green coloring, tow rope on the front, and the turret on the back, there was no mistaking it. Raptor and Shark got their hands on a flippin' Warthog!

"No… freaking… way…"

Raptor giddily giggled at Edge's expression before jumping in. Shaking his head a bit Edge followed and watched as Rap got in the passenger seat. "Well?"

"You _aren't_ gonna try to drive?" Edge's flabber was officially gasted at that point. Raptor, the crazy adrenaline-junkie pre-teen, was making a smart move?

"You're better at this than me, man. Let's go!" Raptor was practically bouncing in his seat. Edge nodded after a few seconds, got in, and flipped the ignition.

"Hi ho Silver," Raptor started.

"AWAY!" the two chorused as they left of the bunker.

* * *

Espio didn't grab much, but that was expected. He simply slipped two pouches onto a belt, strapped it on, and changed his gloves into black, fingerless ones with rubber ridges on the inside for enhanced grip. Without a sound, he vanished from the room. Just like a ninja.

* * *

Knuckles fought his way through the other students, sending some into a few unfortunate lockers until he reached his dorm. Cupping his chin in thought for a whole two minutes, he had a light-bulb moment before grabbing two gloves from underneath his dresser. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. But _these_ gloves were truly unique. They were metal gloves, thin like Sonic's, but the spikes on them were elongated to the length of daggers.

"Time to break these in," he said with a smirk before walking back out into the hallway.

* * *

Silver didn't have much at his disposal save his psychokinesis, but that was a dangerous weapon all its own. However, he did make one change. He slipped on a new pair of aerodynamically shaped running shoes and grabbed his Extreme Gear. Right before he left, he grabbed his goggles that were hanging above the door.

* * *

Hanyou was possibly the most confident out of the seventeen students. The forest was full of dirt and rock, so he was in his element and could easily entomb his opponents. There was no question that he was ready for action.

* * *

Envy was quite confident, seeing as she had the power of light. There wasn't much she could do with it yet, but perhaps she wouldn't need a real weapon. No one was really trying to kill anyone else… Maybe Shadow, but she felt she could win without any assistance.

* * *

Sonic looked around carefully, obviously trying to determine if he needed to bring anything, and if so, what. He had sonic speed, so he could reach the flag in almost zero time. But what if he got caught in a battle? He couldn't rely completely on speed.

'Lessee… I do have that Ancient Light. That's an attack, sorta. Hm…' Sonic knew he had plenty of time, so he spent most of his time simply thinking. After spending fifteen minutes of mentally cataloging everything in his repertoire, he pulled out two items. It was the Bounce Bracelet and the Flame Ring. "Perfect!"

* * *

Shadow did the same thing as Sonic, unknowingly, and meditated in the middle of his dorm as he went over everything he had locally, what was left at his house, and what was out of reach. He had a distinct feeling that the coach preferred to see no one killed, so guns could only be used for intimidation. 'But where's the fun in having a gun if you can't pepper your opponent?' Options were slim. He had his right hand cupped around his chin for several minutes until a wicked grin spread across his muzzle. He then focused on the red Chaos Emerald hidden in his quills, before shouting "Chaos Control!" and warping away. However, a sinister chuckle pervaded the area around his exit point.

* * *

Bakuda decided to simply grab his broadsword from underneath his bed before going back out. It was time to show the others what he could do.

"Get ready, Shark!" he said to no one as he jumped out the window and hovered to the forest.

* * *

Charity carefully stepped through the hallways, avoiding the rest of the students as she made her way to her dorm. She knew what weapon she needed. Her disc launcher. In case she ever got tired, she could simply tap a button and fire even more of her deadly discs to really gain an advantage.

* * *

Natalia sighed upon entering her room, looking around for anything she could use in case her gravity powers weren't an option. She had no knives, no bow and arrow set, no bombs. There was absolutely nothing lethal in her physical arsenal. With a sigh, she walked back out in a matter of a few seconds.

* * *

Silver Wolf walked into his dorm, sighing heavily. The guy had no weapons to use. He only had his pyrokinesis, but he couldn't let anyone know that! Otherwise he'd be singled out and ganged up on. But then again, most of his teammates and opponents didn't have weapons either.

With a shrug, the elemental prince sat down on his bed and simply waited, waiting for the right moment to leave.

* * *

Siegfried looked around, a concerned frown marring his features. He didn't feeling like doing any more than a hundred push-ups, but this was one of the only places where he could hide from the system and make some real friends! He couldn't hurt them… and he was sure that most of his opponents had a weapon or two. Not to mention, two of his opponents were Shark and Hanyou. This was troubling… he had to get something, but what? In his stress, he forgot to realize that he had some weapons made for defense. The gifted teen closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths. Upon opening them, he walked over to his closet and grabbed a bo staff along with two reverse bladed swords.

"This should do perfectly… Maybe one real sword."

* * *

Bolt was the second person to grab something strange. It was a small silver tube, like a staff or baton, but thick and strong like a steel beam. With a small chuckle, he placed it into a small sheath hanging from his belt and whistled a tune as he walked out the door.

* * *

Twenty-nine minutes later found Mr. Bustyerbutt standing between two formidably tall oak trees that marked the entrance to the forest. With his arms crossed, he let his eyes wander over the gathered students. Team One stood to his left and Team Two stood at his right. They were all silent as he surveyed them, his face expressionless. Mentally counting, he was confused when he realized Team Two was short a player. He quickly did a brain search of his roster, having committed it to memory, and realized that Shadow the Hedgehog was missing.

'Where's the black shrimp?' he inwardly asked, scowling at the thought of someone chickening out. He'd be sure to…

A sudden rumbling occurred, breaking his train of thought.

"Whoa! What the heck is that?" Sonic shouted, being careful not to fall.

"Sounds like an army of Warthogs," Raptor spoke up, tapping his hands on the steering wheel like he had been for the past twenty-five minutes. The rumbling soon became stronger, which allowed the bulky crocodile to pinpoint the source. He jerked his head far to his left, staring into the distance. The students followed his example, and stared gobsmacked as a tank—a freaking _tank_!—barreled its way towards the forest, stopping just inches behind Team Two.

"'Bout time ya showed up!" he chided loudly, not caring if the hedgie inside had anything to say about it. With that taken care of, he quickly went into drill-sergeant mode. "Alright, maggots! Here's how it's gonna go down! I'm sayin' it only once so listen up! The flag is gonna be hidden somewhere in the forest, and I ain't telling ya where! You gotta get to it, grab it, and bring it_ right here_!" To emphasize his point, he jabbed the ground with the heel of his shoe. "Now, Team One, you start here!" he pointed at the ground before looking over to Team Two. "Team Two, your starting point is the eastern entrance! I know ya got sonic speed, so dart around to the next set of open trees! And ya ain't startin' any fights till I give the all clear! So use the time between here and then to set up a strategy or a hidin' place! Understood?"

Seventeen heads nodded in unison before the students entered through their starting points only milliseconds behind the other. Once they were out of sight, Mr. Bustyerbutt sighed and dropped his commanding aura, causing the slight frown to curl into a smirk.

"Those kids have spunk. Hope they can bring their A-Game…" he sighed before quickly banishing the thought and pulling out a megaphone, counting down the seconds.

* * *

Team One slowed down to a walk—well, Raptor and Edge were going a whole two miles an hour on the Warthog—after a second or two of brisk movement, knowing that no one would attack them yet. They needed to decide what exactly they would do.

"OK, anyone have any bright ideas?" Knuckles was the first to speak up, surprisingly. "We're in an unfamiliar environment with the possibility of getting ganged up on by all eight members of Team Two."

Shark nodded. "Right. Which means that we need to familiarize ourselves with the forest topography." With that said, he pulled out seven maps.

"Why are there only seven, Shark?" Hanyou asked, confused.

"Edge and Rap only need one, and I can get a mental readout on my own."

"So, I guess that forming duos or trios will be an on-the-fly kinda thing?" Silver questioned.

"Pretty much. I'd imagine that's how the other team is doing."

There was no denying Shark's logic, so they nodded. They each got a map and waited for the teacher's voice to assault their ears.

* * *

True to Shark's words, no one planned to form a team unless necessary.

"So, looks like everyone's on their own unless somethin' comes up," Sonic summarized, stretching his limbs. He had this in the bag. With a ring that let him blaze through steel boxes and a way to bounce away from harm, he was ready to win. "Fine with me!" The Blue Blur flashed his trademark grin.

"Humph…" Shadow muttered from inside his steel contraption. He'd plow right through those trees and crush his opponents under his treads. Bakuda swung his sword a few times, knowing fully well that he would soon be facing Shark. Just like Team One, Team Two had maps of the forest so they could find good places to search or set up an ambush.

* * *

"One hour and twenty-five minutes left of class. Time to get this show on the road," said a certain older voice from atop the edge of the forest. "BEGIN!" he blasted the word through the megaphone, and heard a barrage of battle cries afterwards.

Capture the Flag had officially begun!

* * *

Edge hammered the gas pedal as he dodged the large oak trees, not caring about the loud noise. As the snow white hedgehog had stated, they'd get ambushed sooner or later, so there was no point in keeping quiet. So loud and fast it was.

"So, where're we goin?" Rap hollered over the engine.

"The ravine on the northern edge! It's pretty dangerous, so it must be where the flag is!" Edge reasonably stated. He kept his monkey-like tail wrapped securely on the side bar. Just in case something occurred. After all, one can never be too careful. Within only five minutes, they reached the ravine and began their descent.

Rap put the map in storage before leaping back and latching onto the turret. Even though he was a kid, velociraptors naturally had keen eyes since they moved so fast. So, he was keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Strange rocks, maybe a scuff mark indicating something had been moved, or maybe a shadow that didn't make sense.

Too bad he never really bothered to look up and ahead.

Just above the ravine, and about a minute ahead, was Charity, smirking as she watched her prey approaching.

"Time to get this show on the road!"

Rap hummed a tune to himself as he looked to the left and right, all the while acting like a watchdog. 'I so got skills… Edge and me got this in the bag, no—"

An incoming projectile made that thought disappear.

"Wha!" Edge jerked the wheel, nearly making Raptor fall off. "Incomin' disks of death!"

"Charity? I kinda expected Shadow, really," Rap spoke up as he watched the girl—now that he could see her—run along the ground above flinging discs with expert precision. Thankfully, Edge's skilled driving made sure they missed, not getting closer than a foot away. However, Charity knew when it was time to switch tactics, and then threw multiple stars in a spiraling motion.

"Oh, crap!" Edge yelped as they were incoming. Rap's mind was whirling, and for some reason, only one thought came to mind.

"Do a barrel roll!" he shouted, not sure why, but he did.

"How the heck do you do a barrel roll in a Warthog?" Edge yelled, thinking his comrade had gone insane. Somehow, in that one single second, a plan—a real plan—formed in the kid's inexperienced mind.

"Like… this!" With a wordless yell, Rap performed a complicated—albeit random—sequence of maneuvers. He jumped into the seat, threw Edge backwards while yelling at him to grab the turret, jerked the wheel to the right, slammed on the brake, and threw his weight on the very slight diagonal incline.

As if E.T. had invisibly appeared and granted his powers, the right side of the kart came up and dodged the first few stars. Another jerk of the wheel kept the rotation going, and the car was in the air, perfectly on its side before going horizontal and upside down. A few discs whizzed by, so close that Edge could see his bewildered expression in the reflective steel. One more bump to the right, or maybe left, neither really cared to tell, and the Warthog tilted in its rotation to dodge the weapons that would have hit the fuel line otherwise, and then lurched forward as the right tires caught another slight incline. Then came the left, and the Warthog was on all fours, leaving three stunned Mobians as the end result.

The process seemed so slow, though it only took five seconds, and was so amazing that Raptor forgot to put on the gas. Edge and Charity simply sat in their spots, blinking, unable to come up with any words for their wonderment.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Raptor hollered after about thirty seconds of no movement.

"Whoa…" Edge breathed, unable to think of much else. "Uh… what were we doing again? Oh, right." Edge switched positions with Raptor and hit the gas, zooming off. However, Charity regained her bearings much more quickly, and flicked a disc. Edge was so wrapped up in getting out that he didn't see or hear the thing, and the next thing he knew, they were on the ground.

"What the flyin' duck just happened?" Raptor hollered, agitated that someone banged up his ride.

"Got 'em!" Charity hollered, leaping down. She was soon followed by Silver Wolf, who was positively itching for a fight.

* * *

As soon as everyone left, Shark settled for walking, as if there was no game happening. He had other things on his mind, like seeing how everyone else was doing. It was a good think Shark had picked up a certain trick.

Bending down, he placed his gloved palm on the ground and closed his eyes. Though it would look like he was meditating, the hybrid was actually using a trick well-used by his predatory ancestors. He vaguely remembered a flashback, of a time when he was very young.

-Flashback-

"Hey, Dad, can I ask you something?" a four-year-old Shark asked, looking up at the four-foot-something silver shark. "Everyone's getting mad at me and calling me a cheater whenever we play hide and seek cuz I find 'em so well… It's like, I can see them from behind the walls and stuff. But I'm not doing anything!"

Shark thought his dad would give him a weird look or maybe even say he was perhaps cheating, but instead, the elder chuckled.

"Follow me, kid. You're smart enough to understand this, I'm sure." The young adult led his son down the ocean floor, as if they were on a stroll. "You know why the shark is the master of the sea?"

Shark shook his head in the negative, hoping his dad would have the answers. He always seemed to know everything. "Nope. Why?"

"It's our senses."

"Like touch and taste?" Shark asked, knowing that part of anatomy.

"Right. Well, there's something special about us sharks. We have a sort of sixth sense." Shark blinked several times as he tried to register this. A sixth sense? How did that happen? What did it do?

Shark's dad suddenly chuckled, as if reading the questions right off of his face. "You know how senses work, right?"

"Yep! Eyes make you see, nerves give feeling, taste buds do the taste thing, your nose lets you smell, and ears let you hear."

"Well, we sharks have an extra organ. It lets us see what our eyes cannot. Electromagnetic fields."

"Electromagnetic... like what lets a compass point north or south?" he asked. Magnets, after all, were something he was fascinated with.

"Exactly, my little genius. See, a compass is affected by the planet's magnetic field. But there are other fields. Weaker ones that don't affect a compass. Why you're able to find your friends so easily is because when you blink, your gland kicks in and you see a small glimpse of the electromagnetic field they give off."

"Wow!" If Shark was ever enthralled by anything more than magnets, this was it. Living beings gave off a field? Cool!

"But that's not all that organ can do. Remember your mother telling you about echolocation?"

"Yep! It's where she sends out a noise and it bounces off of stuff so she can see in the murky water, right?"

Shark could practically feel his father's beaming grin. "Right. Sharks can do the same with electromagnetic fields. So you have two ways to sense others, and see what you normally can't. Say for instance, you're trapped in a forest somewhere. You can use echolocation or e.m. field sensing to find out what the forest looks like way ahead so you don't fall into any traps."

"Awesome! That's really neat, Dad!"

"Indeed it is. Now go run along, son." Shark ran off to tell his friends what he found out. Maybe now they could play something that he didn't have a natural advantage in.

-End Flashback—

Shark stood up after examining the topography. The forest had plenty of places where their teacher could have positioned the flag. He'd have to run to expand his range. He took off at a jog, keeping his eyes closed. He dodged any detected obstacles but stopped when two blips appeared far ahead and to his right. One was small, shaped like a wolf, and one was incredibly massive. The massive one had to be Shadow, but who was the wolf?

If it was Hanyou, then he'd surely be seeing rocks sprout up. Soon, he saw a faint flash. That was pure light. But the tank kept moving.

"Envy. Guess her light powers won't work on that glass. I suppose I could lend some assistance," he grinned savagely before leaping towards his destination.

* * *

Indeed, Envy was doing her best to keep away from Shadow. Sure she had good speed, but that blasted thing had a turret like the weird ATV Raptor and Edge had! It was kinda hard to dodge the bullets in such an area, and she couldn't hide because Shadow's treads smashed in and leveled trees like toothpicks.

If only she hadn't convinced Hanyou to let her go on her own…

-Flashback—

Envy heard the call and was about to run off and find the flag, but Hanyou held her by the sleeve.

"Hanyou-_nii-san_! C'mon, leggo! I wanna go find the flag!" She jerked, but her older brother's strength was quite tough to break.

"There's no way I'm letting you go alone, _imoutou-chan_. This place is full of dangers, not just the other team. If we're gonna find the flag, we do it together. I won't let you get hurt if I can help it." This just seemed to spur on the girl's struggles.

"Aw, you never let me do _anything_ by myself!" She sat down on the ground in a huff, bringing her brother down with her. "You just don't trust me," she stuck her lip out in a pout.

"Now, come on, you know that's not it," Hanyou half-lied. Sure, Envy was a big girl, but she was still reckless at times. "C'mon, I'll let you get a cookie…" he tried sweet-talking her, but the younger wolf stayed still.

"No! I don't want a cookie! I _want_ to do something myself for once! Please, _Aniki_? I promise I won't get hurt, and if I don't think I can handle something, I'll run away from it. Please, please, please?"

Hanyou knew that Envy was playing her favorite card, and he was losing badly. Even though he felt she wouldn't run from anything, somehow her begging was causing that annoying little voice in the back of Hanyou's head—the one that said he was being too paranoid—to grow just a bit stronger. Envy mentally counted down the seconds. Four… Three… Two… One…

"Fine…" Hanyou relented, releasing Envy's sleeve and letting her run off.

"Thank you, _nii-san_! You won't regret it!"

Hanyou gave his best deadpan voice. "Somehow I doubt that," he muttered as he ran off in a different direction."

"Oh man!" Envy gasped/whined. "Doesn't that guy ever _stop_?"

To answer her question, Shadow blasted an array of bullet holes at a nearby tree to intimidate her. With a yip, the female wolf darted away, only to get caught by a few vines along the floor. Her ankle was tied up.

"Not good, not good, not good!" she muttered while eyeing the monstrosity heading towards her slowly but surely.

"Yo, Shadow! Don't you know it's not nice to try to hurt a lady?" said a synthesized voice. Shadow, from inside his cockpit, looked up to see Shark standing on a tree not too far off. The hedgehog smirked before turning the massive monstrosity's turret and firing at the armored hybrid. As expected, the bullets bounced off of the metal and Kevlar.

Shark smirked from behind his helmet before leaping down and cutting the vines.

"Thanks, Shark!" she said with a grin, making sure her leg wasn't broken.

"No prob." He then turned to Shadow, his eyes trained on the treads. "You should probably get out of here. No offense, but Shadow's way ahead of your league. I'll handle him."

"If you say so. I'll go find Bolt. He shouldn't be too tough. Later!" Envy ran off, creating a blinding flash to assist in her escape.

Shadow turned to Shark, smirking. "I'm actually glad you came. I was getting worried I wouldn't be able to test this out. Let's see how much pressure that armor can hold, shall we?"

Shark smirked back as he pulled out a silver orb. "Go ahead and try."

Shadow pressed the two gas pedals, revving up the treads like a bull would charge its fighter. Shark made a c'mon gesture with his right hand, the left reaching for a silver orb.

"Grenades? Please." Shadow charged forward, waiting for Shark to toss it. Instead, the orb glowed bright green and revealed a laser cannon of sorts. "What is that…?"

"Get ready, Shadow! This is my ultimate buster! Brace yourself, cuz I'MA FIRIN' MAH SPARTAN LAZER!" A massive—and I do mean gargantuan—beam of energy shot out from the lens, ripping apart the power conduits and disintegrating the engine and treads. A green glow from the inside was all Shark needed to know that Shadow warped away.

"Aw, too scared to let himself get hit by the big bad ol' laser, huh?" Shark taunted. Shadow just narrowed his eyes as he saw his ride get turned into metallic dust. "And now I've trashed your ride. What now for the Ultimate Life Form?"

Shadow kept his gaze steady, not letting the shark/dolphin's words get to him. "I don't really have the time to fight. I've already wasted almost fifteen minutes trying to chase that girl."

Shark's high IQ was heavily math-related, so he calculated the remaining time in seconds. "We have just over an hour of class left?"

Shadow's answer was a grunt. "Guess so. I'm going to deal with your little blue friend." Shadow warped before he could hear Shark's comeback.

"So, that's the way you wanna play? Fine. If Kazo's on your chopping block, then Bakuda's on mine."

* * *

Said fox was standing in the middle of the clearing, unlike his companions. Rather than chase after the competition and disable them, he would wait for someone on the opposing team to come to him. He kept his hand on the handle of the Sword of Hope. It wasn't long before he suddenly heard a voice.

"Luke, I am your father…" It was a perfect imitation of Darth Vader from that Star Wars movie he had seen once.

'Who in the right mind would…? Oh.' Bakuda found the source of said voice. Shark was leaning casually against a nearby tree, his arms crossed in a haughty fashion.

'Shark-san. That must be his way of saying that he's very confident in this new armor of his.' Well, he'd be more than delighted to shatter that confidence. The kit slowly drew his sword and leaned forward on his right leg, the blade resting against his left shoulder. Shark got off the tree and stood facing his sparring partner, smirking all the while.

* * *

Once he left, Knuckles was doing what he did best.

"Hrrah!"

Punching his way through boulders and trees as he searched for the darned flag.

"Dang it! This would be so much easier if it was a shard of the Master Emerald or something…"

"I thought I heard your voice echo," said a female voice. The scarlet echidna whirled around and came face to face with Natalia. She kept her face in a neutral line, but inwardly she was smirking.

"What do you want?" he asked, slipping into his trademark stance. "If you're looking for a fight, then I'd be happy to accept!"

"Actually, I am," she retorted while slipping into her own. "Why waste time racing someone for the flag when I can just knock out the competition and find it on my own time?"

"I'll make you eat those words!" Knuckles ran forward, dagger claws at the ready. Natalia waved her arm and levitated out of reach. "What the?"

"Oh, that's right," Natalia mocked, keeping her cold countenance and creeping her opponent out. "I never showed you my powers. With me, gravity is your greatest enemy. So I suggest that you yield your search. Otherwise I'll introduce your head to your colon. Quite rapidly."

While Knuckles didn't find the idea of being flattened like a pancake appealing, there was no way he'd let this Shadow-wannabe emo chick make him chicken out. So, he chucked a sizeable rock at her, obviously not expecting it to float up and away.

"You didn't think that I could only alter the gravity around myself, did you?" Natalia waved a finger back and forth. "You'll never win like that."

With a sound that seemed like a cross between an angry cobra and a clogged vacuum cleaner, Knuckles kept a careful violet eye on his opponent.

"Knuckles!" called a voice. Without even a warning, an Extreme Gear flew out of nowhere and clocked Natalia on the side of the head. Silver hopped off of a nearby treetop and landed next to his teammate.

"Silver?" was the Guardian's dignified response.

"Yep! Sorry to interrupt your fight, but you're kinda at a disadvantage…"

Knuckles inwardly growled, but nodded, prepared to double team his foe.

* * *

As Knuckles and Silver got ready to fight Natalia, it had been thirty seconds since Rap and Edge had gotten out of the Warthog. Raptor currently hissed as he looked at his broken ride. "Aw, man! That wheel was expensive! And now the paint's ruined! Dang it!"

"Forget it, Rap. Right now we have other issues," Edge stated as he stared down their assailants. "Never expected to see you two working together…"

"Oh, we're not," Silver Wolf replied. "Otherwise you woulda had to dodge fireballs as well. Now, who's first?" he grinned, cracking his knuckles.

"Mighty brave, aren't you?" Rap stated. He then turned around and pointed at his butt. "Come get some, loser!" He was pointedly talking to Silver Wolf.

"You're gonna regret that! Charity, Edge is all yours. The dino is _mine_."

Rap giggled and ran up the wall, followed by Silver Wolf. Charity blinked once or twice before focusing her attention on Edge. She fluttered her bat wings once or twice, egging on her opponent. Edge, however, remained calm as he slid his dagger out of his sheath. There was too much at stake to let her win. Even though he felt he could, five-hundred push-ups—let alone _one-thousand_—was _not_ something he planned on doing. If Charity made it her point to stop him, then he would to everything in his power to make sure that didn't happen.

"Looks like you got lucky," she stated, settling into a traditional fighter's stance. Edge slid into his own, staring her down. "But the odds are still against you."

Edge allowed himself a smirk. "Ladies first."

Rap didn't run very far, possibly only thirty seconds away from the ravine. Silver Wolf stared at him, wondering if the kid could actually put up a fight. Being only about ten or so, he was bound to be sloppy, right?

"So, you have anything you wanna say before I cook your hide?"

Rap then brandished his claws, placing his good foot forward and covering his weak spots in a seemingly haphazard manner, the pointy additions facing forward for a quick and easy grapple. Primitive, yet effective. Obviously he had learned that style from his parents.

"Try not to suck!" he smirked. Skilled or not, there was _no _way he'd let this guy bake him like a potato!

* * *

In another remote area of the forest, as most of the people were ready to fight, Espio was leaping from branch to branch, running on the ground in short intervals of time before going airborne again. It seemed like an unorthodox method, but being able to switch terrain so quickly allowed him two different views of the battlefield and helped him evade the competition while he searched around for the flag. When he had to stay still and catch his breath, he hid within the shadows.

"This forest is massive. Does he truly expect us to be able to find one flag so easily?" The chameleon looked up at the sun through the canopy. "Class will officially end in fifty-eight minutes. Perhaps there is still time for one of us to retrieve it."

With that thought in mind, he zipped through the trees and slid along the ground, barely making a sound. Stealth was a ninja's key ability. If he was forced into a battle, he had no idea if he'd be able to have enough time to search. A quick rustling sound was heard from not too far off, and Espio activated his invisibility in a swirl of leaves. He stood stiffly against the tree, keeping his breathing controlled. It was revealed to be Bolt, who seemed to be the only member of Team Two not looking for a fight right now. The wolf was overturning stones at a relative pace, relying only on sight. Which was a good thing, because if he used his extremely sensitive sniffer, he would have exposed Espio in a second.

"Oh, c'mon! Where is that stupid flag?" He darted off in frustration, heading towards the western edge of the forest. A good educated guess, he had to say. It was at the far end and took the longest amount of time to get to. However, Espio decided to avoid direct confrontation. If he found that Bolt got the flag, he'd simply incapacitate the guy and retrieve it from his unconscious form. With the skill only years of practice could bring, he disappeared into the thickets.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shark and Bakuda stood silently, poised and ready to attack. With Bakuda in a martial-arts stance and Shark standing like a soldier, it seemed so… out of place. As if the fight shouldn't even happen, it seemed so surreal. Yet this was normal for the two, as if destiny had put them together. And neither denied the challenge. If Shark wanted to test his armor right here and now, so be it… A gale rushed past, ruffling Bakuda's fur and gi, adding to the suspense, even though no one was watching.

Soon, as if their ears picked up a silent start signal, they rushed at each other. Bakuda swung his mighty sword, separating the very air as he intended to slice through that steel. Shark met him head on, backhanding the weapon. This was followed by an uppercut going towards Bakuda's chin. The kit leaned backwards, using his tails for support, and backflipped out of Shark's reach.

Shark, in response, grabbed a silver orb much like the one he used to bring out his laser cannon, and squeezed it, causing it to glow. In its place afterwards was a pellet gun. It wasn't fatal, but it'd sure leave a nasty bruise if it hit.

"Let's see you dodge these!"

Shark loaded up a nitrous cartridge at the back of the magazine and squeezed the trigger, shooting the small, metal spheres. Bakuda smirked and simply tilted his sword, causing them to bounce off. However, Shark was smarter than that. Bakuda soon heard a beeping, and glanced down just at the right moment to get blinded by a flash grenade.

'Shoot! The pellets were a distraction!' With a near feral growl, Bakuda leapt up and out of the blinding light, blinking a few times as he tried to ascertain Shark's whereabouts. When he landed, he looked around.

"What in the name of Chaos Theory was that?" he barked, using a line he had heard Tails use once or twice.

"Oh, the sudden appearance of my trusty pellet gun?" Bakuda realized that Shark set his synthesizer to 'Displace'. His voice was sent out in sound fragments to various locations to make it appear as if he was everywhere at once. So much for using small talk to drown him out. Biting a string of curses under his breath, he tried to keep his focus while regaining his vision. "That was my secret project. Chaos Displacement Orbs, or CDO's, for short. Remember how Sonic and Shadow used Chaos Control to warp the ARC away?"

Bakuda nodded to himself, remembering watching the news and wishing he could go up there and help out the two hedgehogs. "Yeah, I remember. So you copied that ability on a smaller scale. It stands to reason that you use Chaos Energy displacement to create a hammerspace of sorts inside of the orbs. All it takes is for you to inject a bit of Chaos Energy to disrupt the energy flow and bring the object back into the real world."

"Oh ho ho! Looks like someone's been hitting the books. But it won't really help you. Even if you manage to steal an orb, it only responds to _my_ energy. Not yours. Nice try though. So, what do you think of the armor? Better, right?" Shark gave a leering grin as Bakuda snarled. He figured out the kit's plan quite easily, and it clearly didn't settle with Goku's son.

"All talk and no real game, Shark-san. I'm not here to chat. I'm here to fight you so I can move on and find the flag. If you will not take this seriously, then I will simply leave." Although Bakuda didn't mean a word—being a Saiyan made his blood crave battle, serious or not—he wasn't about to let Shark see that. And judging by the sudden silence, it seemed that his little speech worked.

"I'll make you eat those words!" Shark cried as he leapt out of the trees, firing his pellet gun rapidly. Bakuda was forced to go on the defensive. With lightning fast reflexes, he knocked back and sliced up the pellets before leaping up to avoid a leg sweep. Shark then went into a handstand, flinging his foot up to nail the kit on his shin. The force of the impact was sure to leave a welt or at least a bruise, but the adrenaline-fueled excitement blocked even the tiniest trace of pain.

Shark grinned as he followed up with a series of punches, which Bakuda met blow for blow. Even though his face gave away nothing, Bakuda was impressed with his rival's newfound speed. Before he could easily get in a few knocks to the helmet, but Shark gave no room for an attack. So, perhaps it was time to put this armor to the test after all…

Bakuda jumped out of the way after Shark stopped punching—probably having to catch his breath after that onslaught—and then focused on his right hand. Shark stopped, obviously wondering what his friend/opponent was up to, before he saw the appendage begin to glow a yellowish color. What was this? Bakuda never really did anything like that before, did he? But then again, it always seemed that the kit learned something new before their next spar.

Bakuda thrust his arm forward, launching the energy. Shark noted with interest that the energy naturally tried to keep in the shape of a ball. Curious, he hunched over into a sumo-wrestler-like stance, steadying himself. He then pressed a button and felt the ground beneath him buckle. The energy then made contact with his chest plate, erupting in a flash of light and heat.

"Shark-san!" Bakuda called, worried. 'Why didn't he dodge that?'

Shark grunted from the force as he was pushed back slightly. Whatever this thing was, it had a lot of force! Even his new function didn't completely protect him. The heat from the attack went right through his armor, causing him to break out in a sweat. Soon, the flash faded, and he saw that the attack had pushed him back an entire foot!

"Whoa… Dang! What the HECK was that?"

"Thank goodness!" Bakuda sighed loudly, his heart hammering in his chest. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Shark pressed the button again and stood up straight. "So… that attack. What was it?"

"Oh, that? It was really nothing. A simple burst of Chaos Energy. Much like Shadow-san's Chaos Spear."

"Oh. But that was still cool. If it wasn't for the Armor Lock function, I woulda been in trouble," Shark said while pointing to the damaged ground. Bakuda cocked his head, giving Shark a blank look.

"Armor Lock? What?" To say Bakuda was confused would be an understatement. He had never heard of such a strange, alien function. He guessed it was from that _Halo_ video game series, but he had never even held a controller. So, naturally, he was in the dark. And, judging from the feeling that Shark was smirking yet again, he was going to find out soon.

"It's basically a gravity field that will bring projectiles to the ground. Or, as I did, prevents me from getting blown back by any force. But not bad with the energy blast. I'm sweatin' like a pig! You base that from those ki-blast things your dimension is famous for?"

Bakuda gave a happy nod before suddenly switching back to battle mode, rushing forward while spinning his three tails as a tri-blade propeller. Shark then swung his arm in a circle, knocking back Bakuda's run and leaving an opening, which he promptly took advantage of with an elbow-drive.

The cobalt blue fox gagged as the wind was driven from his windpipe, growling while retaliating with a super-fast kick. The force actually left a very slight dent in the metal armor. Probably weakened from that heat, Shark had to surmise. That meant he'd have to pull out some more tricks and get around Bakuda's defenses. If he kept up his strategy, he'd surely compromise the chest plate. While Kevlar was good for high speed projectiles, Bakuda's energy coupled with the sharp claws posed a potential threat to the super tough nylon.

Shark then went acrobatic, going into a backwards cartwheel while dodging Bakuda's strikes. He blocked a few with his feet while standing on his hands and finally disappeared into the trees.

"Time to test this baby out," he said silently as he pressed another button. He then watched with glee as his armor slowly began to take the characteristics of what was in the environment, shifting in a manner that hid him within the environment. "Active Camo looking good." He then slowly shifted down the tree, making sure to take it easy. The camo needed a second or two to shift, and if he moved too quickly, it couldn't match the immediate area and Bakuda would surely notice it.

With the stealth of a sniper, he slowly crept along the ground, keeping his thermal lens on so he could see where Bakuda was while checking his path for anything he'd have to avoid. 'Twenty-five seconds,' Shark counted down. He walked by the trees and before firing three rounds of pellets.

Bakuda tapped his fingers against the handle of his sword, wondering what his rival was up to. By now, he was sure that they had been fighting for about ten minutes. Maybe less, maybe more, he wasn't quite sure. And, he knew from experience that Shark tended to switch tactics about every four to six minutes unless he felt something was working well enough. So, what could Shark do from far away?

Pshew! Pshew! Pshew!

The sound of three shots whizzing through the air caught his ears, and he quickly flared his Chaos Energy and melted them on spot. He then glared at the spot where they came from, but was quickly caught off guard by a swipe to the head. Stars danced in his vision as a searing heat erupted in the back of his skull. Grabbing the sore spot with his left hand, he went into a spinning sweep with his sword, surprised when he saw nothing.

'What the?' His thoughts were once again interrupted when pain shot up his knee, causing him to buckle. With his instincts flaring, he rolled away when his sensitive ears picked up the sound the trigger clicking. 'What is going on here? Is Shark somehow invisible? Wait, no. Shark would be blind if he was. But then, he _is_ part shark, so he could see me with his eyes closed…' Bakuda leapt high into the air, hovering out of reach. "The one thing I wish I could do with Chaos Energy. But _no_, I hafta use my tails to fly in this form."

The kit shook his head. There was no time for thinking like this. He then glared at the clearing before he noticed something. The colors near the center didn't look quite right. So, Shark somehow could make himself partially invisible by mimicking the colors and textures of the environment, eh? Well, this was interesting!

Bakuda's interest was soon forgotten as a previously invisible chain appeared in his vision, and brought him back down to the ground. He coughed after recovering from the grapple, realizing that the chain had receded again. He looked around after brushing the dirt from his gi, smirking slightly when he saw Shark's armor fade in and out of visibility.

Shark growled as he started to flicker, the Active Camo beginning to wear off. He leapt back into the trees and tried to hide once more, but Bakuda caught the movement.

"That won't work a second time, Shark-san!" Bakuda cupped his hands together and placed them to his right side and back. "Let's see you hide without any trees to use! Kame-hame-ha!" He shot his hands forward, unleashing a green beam of powerful energy, equal to Shadow's Chaos Blast.

"That's gonna hurt if it hits…" Shark muttered before he quickly leapt away, watching as the blast obliterated the trees behind him. "What's he… oh crap!" The beam then changed direction, going into an arc and heading for him! 'So, the twerp can alter its course, eh? That sucks.' Shark leapt forward, increasing his speed by half, and dashed like a madman along the ground, sidestepping the trees and bushes in his way. He then went acrobatic, twisting and flipping to dodge the branches and higher bushes.

Keeping his thermals on, he waited for any indication of the energy losing shape. Soon enough, he picked up a slight decrease in power, dropping ever so slowly. Another smirk stretched across his face. All it would take was a little more running and…

"Hrrrrah!" Bakuda yelled out, and the thing _grew_! Just how much power did that kid have, really?

'Well, time to shake a leg!' Shark floored it, but unfortunately, when you're in a forest, going that fast is _not_ the wisest decision. The poor hybrid ran smack dab into a tree, grunting and whining as he slid down in a cartoonish fashion. He could feel the telltale signs that the energy was getting closer, so he did the only thing he could, and activated his Armor Lock.

The gravity around him steadily increased, slowly causing the ground to buckle and rise around his feet. Shark gritted his teeth as the force impacted his muscles. It was like trying to lift up one of those flippin' oak trees! Sure, he had super strength, but a fully grown tree like the ones around him was _way_ over his limit.

The energy soon impacted him, the heat making him sweat and the light obscuring his vision. This kit was tough, no doubt! Shark, in his frozen state, mentally re-evaluated Bakuda as he gauged his new powers. He could feel his heels being pushed through the dirt and rock, and he leaned forward to balance himself.

"Guh!" he groaned, the two forces, one from above and one from the front, trying to make him submit to their power. But there was no way he'd give in like that. He had to pull through this and show who was superior! Shark leaned forward as best as he could without the possibility of toppling over, and waited.

His heartbeat hammered in his ears as he stood. How long had it been? Twenty, maybe thirty seconds? No, that was the adrenaline talking. Everything was slowed down. So it was more like five, he had to guess. He didn't care. All that mattered was focusing on absorbing as much of the energy away from the chest-plate as possible. Surely that wouldn't be _too_ hard, right? He reached forward in a vain attempt to push the energy back, feeling the heat warm his hands through the material. Soon, the blast wavered, the air rippling as it slowly reoriented itself. Well, he supposed that was OK. No real damage according to his sensors. But if Bakuda landed three more hits on the center of his chest, he'd be wide open, Kevlar suit or not.

After letting out an appreciative whistle after noticing the Kamehameha had made him slide back not one, but nearly three feet, he disengaged the Armor Lock. He calmly strolled to the clearing, frowning when he heard the distinct sound of metal on metal. Surely there weren't any magnets nearby. He looked down and smirked. The tip of the Sword of Hope was nestled nicely under his metal boot. Bakuda, naturally, forgot about the Armor Lock and tried to impale him. 'Clever,' he grinned before tossing the blade far into the forest. 'But not clever enough… Hm, guess I could even the odds…' Shark removed the container from his leg, set it on the ground, and walked into the clearing, seeing that Bakuda looked a bit worse for wear.

The kit was panting heavily, hunched over and on the ground, trying to stabilize himself. The only saving grace was that the sun was hidden behind the clouds and it was a cool and dry day. If it had been hot and humid, heat stroke would have set in just minutes ago from all the exertion.

"How ya holdin' up, buddy?" Shark asked, removing his helmet for a moment to wipe the sweat off his brow. He latched it back on and deactivated the thermal lenses. The battery was wearing down anyways. Bakuda panted wordlessly, looking up at the older warrior, his eyes grateful for Shark letting him rest. Shark, meanwhile, looked up at the sun. They had been fighting for a good while. About twenty minutes. So there were about forty plus minutes left to find the flag.

"I'm… alright… Shark-san…" Bakuda managed in between gasps. "I don't think I can do that again… No more Chaos Energy attacks for me…" He stood up, his breathing finally getting under control. He looked straight at Shark, who was looking up for a few seconds. "Y'know, I heard that's bad for your eyes."

Shark ignored the jab and turned to his rival. "Looks like we don't have a whole lot of time…" he trailed off, knowing there was no need to elaborate. Bakuda nodded, settling into his usual stance. He was out of ki, and Shark's armor was almost out of power. His sword was gone, but Shark had no more weapons.

'So, it's come to simple martial arts, has it?' Bakuda knew that was a rhetorical question he asked himself. He stood, waiting, letting Shark make the first move. He didn't disappoint. The armored warrior rushed forward, intending to deliver a blow with the knife edge of his right hand. Bakuda, starting to regain his energy, swatted it away with his left paw and landed a couple punches to Shark's abdomen, leaving near microscopic dents in the metal.

Shark leaned back slightly and swung his foot out and around in a rapid motion, catching the kit's right arm before corkscrewing and slamming his foot into Bakuda's forehead, making him see stars between small lances of pain. It was more the metal than the force that hurt. It was like being hit with a hammer. Sure, the swing was part of it, but anyone can say if the swing was empty, it'd hurt a lot less.

Bakuda gnashed his teeth together in a feral growl, lunging forward and grabbing Shark's left arm, leaping up and going behind, causing some minor hyper-rotation and overextension of the shoulder, causing a fair bit of pain. In response, Shark twirled around to his left, easing out the rotation a fair bit and ducked to avoid a fist, burying his own in Bakuda's abdomen. However, the kit took a page out of his mental training manual and sucked in his gut while causing a very small surge of Chaos Energy to protect the spot.

Shark felt a sensation like he had punched a glass as the blow connected, realizing that his attack was ebbed by a shield of energy. But, there was still enough force behind it to make Bakuda release his shoulder. Giving it a few shakes, Shark leapt into the air and attempted a nasty pile-driver technique, hoping to smash Bakuda under his elbow. However, with martial arts being his forte, he quickly did a few backflips before springing forward and into the air, rocking Shark's head back with a horizontal karate chop.

Struggling to regain the air that escaped his now abused windpipe, Shark kneed the kit harshly and landed on the ground, exhaling sharply before standing up. He had to admit, that kiai technique was very useful. He glared up at the kit, who was doing a nose dive, angling his tails to propel him on his downward path. Shark blocked his chest with his arms in a weird X-like position, hoping to absorb the blow and protect his weakened armor.

Bakuda slammed his knuckles into the armor, not affected by the reinforced alloy, intent on leaving a more sizable impression. Shark hopped backwards while Bakuda's feet touched the ground, his tails wagging slightly as they returned to their normal position. Perhaps now he could finish off the armor.

'Hmm… Shark-san is crafty. He's covering up his newer weak spots. Now… how am I going to get around his defenses? I have to wear him out somehow… Of course!' Bakuda's mind suddenly flashed to just about five minutes ago or so, when the two were trading rapid punches. Burst Mode, as he had dubbed it after seeing the term on a DBZ game that he saw Shark playing—of course, if it was up to the guy, he wouldn't have touched the controller; Raptor had blackmailed him into playing a ten round match—about seven months ago. 'All I have to do is goad Shark into a blitz and make sure he goes beyond his limit!'

Bakuda smirked, curling his finger inwards a few times in a come-and-get-me gesture. Shark grinned back, determined to win. He then ran forwards and threw a punch. Bakuda did the same, causing them to collide. The two got up really close, about two feet away, and began to punch and kick, moving their appendages at an incredible speed. Bakuda took notice that Shark was slightly slower, and managed to get in a kick to the side. He then followed up with a jab to Shark's hand, claws aglow with energy and sending thin flames of pain through the appendage. With the discomfort slowing down Shark's reactions and punches, Bakuda was free to take care of his legs while he jerked his upper body from side to side. He dealt one more blow, connecting with the hybrid's ankle.

Shark finally jumped back, panting as he held up a hand. Bakuda then dropped his façade, and began to pant heavily.

"I… I can't… land another blow… My healing orb … still needs ten… minutes to… fully charge… Looks like… you win?" Shark asked before seeing Bakuda shake his head.

"No… I can't… land another… blow either. Neither… of us is… capable of continuing. I'll… faint if I hafta… do that again. Call it a tie?"

"Heh… sure." Shark let out another wheeze before stumbling over, removing his gloves and spending a minute going over the wound on his palm with an antiseptic ointment before applying a bandage. He stood up, supporting his friend with his right arm and they slowly walked into the trees. After retrieving their weapons, they bowed to each other and walked off to heal.

* * *

That's all for now folks! Now… I gotta beat Mega Man 2! Later!

(8/13/2011: 6:12) I realized that I forgot those horizontal ruler things. Added! Hope this makes it easier to read!


	4. Capture the Flag: Part 2

_OK, I know I said that this would be a two-parter, but I didn't wanna leave you all hanging and wait for me to finish all the fights. That would've taken too long. So here ya go!_

* * *

When Shark had begun his fight with Bakuda, Raptor began his fight with Silver Wolf while below, Edge and Charity also commenced their duel.

Raptor started his first move, doing the only thing he could—rushing forward at blinding speed. Tunnel vision set in as the world began to blur by on both sides. Silver Wolf grinned a feral smirk as he launched a fireball at the dino, intent on luring Raptor to jump up and therefore slow down just enough so he could deliver a nasty kick. However, the child once again defied logic and rushed straight through, shielding his eyes from the flames and letting his scales defend his skin.

Silver Wolf blinked, incredulous. The kid wasn't even hurt! Not a single singe mark, no blackening of any scales, no damage whatsoever! He shook his head slightly as Raptor uncovered his eyes, ready to throw a clawed punch. Silver Wolf merely stepped to the side, holding out his arm and clotheslining the youngster. Raptor hissed slightly and coughed before reaching up and back down, glaring accusingly at the furry arm and sinking his claws into it.

"Gah!" Silver Wolf snarled and punched Raptor in the face out of reflex, causing him to let go. The elemental prince growled as he saw a bit of blood soak his fur. There wasn't too much damage, but it still hurt like a b-word. He then flicked his wrists, shooting out smaller fireballs.

In the canyon below, Edge and Charity were fighting fire with fire—or more accurately, wind with wind. Charity had already used her impressive speed to collect her discs, flinging them at Edge with precise aim. Edge smirked, waving his arm to create a small air current. Charity growled as her weapons were carried away from their target. It seemed that while she used wind as an offense, Edge could use it as an evasive defense.

"Not bad, Edge," Charity commented. "But you can't win against me!"

"Is taunting all you can do?" Edge retorted, thrusting his arms forward and sending the discs hurling back to their owner. Charity hissed in her throat, sidestepping the small circles of death. Perhaps maybe she could show this fool just why she said victory was out of his reach. Giving Edge a downright evil grin, she placed her right foot forward and kneeled on it, holding her ground. She slowly crossed her arms in front of her chest and head, leaning back slightly and taking in a deep breath. Edge, in turn, raised an eye ridge as he evaluated her movements.

Charity held the position for all of two seconds before she suddenly brought her arms out and exhaled sharply, blowing out a humongous gust of air. The force of it was enough to slightly make her slide back, but Edge was almost tripping. The gale began to erode away the cracks in the ground, making the stone smooth and slippery. The poor hedgehog bit out a curse as he was starting to slide at a good pace, leaning forward to try to counterbalance his body.

Edge then kicked outwards and brought it back around, twisting his body into a spin, somehow going faster and faster in spite of the gales.

_'No way!'_ Charity mentally shouted._ 'He's using the lack of traction to spin and gather the wind around him! Why didn't I see that coming…?'_

Edge span like that for a good minute as the winds began to act as Charity said, forming a miniature tornado around his body. He then kept the rotation and lifted his foot a bit higher before using the spin to bring his foot down at an incredible velocity, causing the wind to rush forward. Charity let out an uncharacteristic yelp as she was blasted with a variation of her own attack, covering her body and unable to do much else. Her control against windstorms left a bit to be desired. However, it turned out that the wind was a mere trick. Charity blinked as she felt something on her shoulder, causing her to turn and abandon her stance. This, in turn, allowed the gust to literally pick her up and send her flying…

Right into Edge's outstretched fist.

Charity coughed as her midsection slightly folded around the other's fist, hissing in pain as she fell down, barely managing to keep stable. She glared hellfire at Edge, silently vowing some sort of revenge for that one. Edge simply smirked, waiting for her stand up, but wasn't expecting her next move. Without giving any indication, she flicked a disk, lodging it in Edge's shin.

"Gyarr!" Edge half-screamed/half-growled. The small weapon made a solid cut into the muscle, causing him to slightly bleed. Sure, he was thankful she didn't hit his femoral artery, but he was still angry at that cheap shot.

Back up top, Raptor was displaying a great deal of flexibility as he ran forward at a quick speed. He jumped, flipped, ducked, and sidestepped a majority of the fireballs Silver Wolf launched, only getting burned by a few. Unfortunately, Raptor _did_ have some sensitive spots, and he _was_ a kid, so he had a pain tolerance like Charmy and Cream.

So, when he got hit there, he let out quite the yowl. Luckily, Silver Wolf was a good sport and let the kid nurse his wounds—for a short time. But they were soon going at it again. Raptor and Silver Wolf lashed out with clawed hands, each of them hoping to wound the other. But they were both at somewhat of a disadvantage. Silver Wolf couldn't manage to break through Rap's scales, and Raptor couldn't handle the heat his opponent was surrounding his skin with now.

The two stopped their close combat fight and bounced away from each other, smirking all the while. While they didn't look worse for wear, one could tell they were fighting hard. Silver Wolf had a few sections of raked fur, showing small grazes on his arms, legs, and torso. Raptor had a few scratches on his head and chest, and a few black patches of singed scales.

"Wow!" Raptor said with a grin. "I never had this much fun sparring back home!"

"Same here. You're not half bad." Raptor beamed. "For a kid, anyways."

Raptor's grin fell. "Aw, spoil my pride, huh? I'll show you!" Raptor brandished his toe claws and began to rapidly kick the ground, spraying up a bunch of dirt that hid him from view while pelting the wolf with pebbles.

"Hey, cut that out! Yah!" Silver Wolf then launched a small stream of flames from his hands, piercing through the cloud. He hoped he would hear a yip or something, but nothing. He leapt over the wall of dirt to attack, but came up empty. "Huh?"

Raptor was completely gone. There wasn't a trace anywhere! Silver Wolf growled in his throat, his fists aflame as he waited. Where had that punk disappeared to? He began to walk, his footfalls becoming heavier out of frustration, when he noticed that there was a strange sound echoing all around him. It sounded like leaves rustling. A soft, shifting sound. Becoming somewhat worried, he feverishly monitored the area and searched for Raptor's presence.

"Come out, you coward," Silver Wolf said, hoping that he could lure Raptor out with his taunting. Soon, the rustling increased. Then there was a scratching noise, like claws on stone. "What the heck is-?"

The ground underneath his feet suddenly buckled and broke, sending the too-surprised-to-react prince falling down about four feet. "Guh-huh!" he groaned and coughed, the wind having been knocked out of him. When he managed to regain his breath, and therefore his wits, he realized that he had fallen into a small tunnel system. The area he was in was about seven inches or so taller than he himself was, but the tunnels were noticeably shorter—about Raptor's height when crouching—and he could have to crawl through to navigate.

"Drat!" the wolf growled, his voice seeming to echo through the tunnels. "That kid's craftier than I gave 'im credit for…"

Soon, he heard the scratching again, this time coming from ahead. At this, he grinned and shot out a small stream of red fire at the tunnel. He watched it disappear, but nothing happened. He closed his eyes and heard the scratching, but also heard a sound similar to that of butter sizzling, but more solid and short. He hit bedrock.

"Nice try~! You'll _never_ get me like that, S.W." Raptor taunted from one of the tunnels.

"Oh? Then how about we play hide and seek?"

"I prefer cat and mouse, but whatever you prefer."

Silver Wolf smirked. "I dunno. Last time I checked, short-and-scaly doesn't suit my diet. But I _am_ in the mood for a chicken sandwich…"

"Oh, that's just tasteless!" Raptor replied, resisting the urge to either yell or laugh at the jab.

Going back to Edge and Charity, at this moment, Charity was barely smirking at Edge's frustrated expression. Her stomach and lower ribs still burned, so she reminded herself to control her breathing. Edge, on the other hand, was nearly punch-drunk and panted like he had run a marathon in the Amazon, his energy sapped, running purely on adrenaline.

"Screw this." Edge whipped out his dagger, closing his eyes in concentration.

"Huh?" Charity asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "You think you can beat me with a big knife? That's a lau—"

"Soul Blade!"

At Edge's yelled command, a bright aura of energy surrounded the blade, causing it to glow. The aura slowly began to expand, growing to about two and a half feet, only about nine or ten inches short of his own height. He then rushed forward with the glowing and growing blade, not caring if the ability was incomplete.

Charity blinked in surprise as she watched Edge swing at her like a man possessed. She leapt back, flapping her leathery wings once to gain some distance, cringing at the itchy feeling in her back. She still wasn't quite used to flying yet. But she could worry about being uncomfortable later. Edge had a very dangerous weapon.

Speaking of said weapon, the glowing vanished, and Edge's dagger was transformed into a broadsword. The silver metal gleamed in the sunlight, two razor sharp edges ready to strike. Edge gave it a few experimental twirls as he began to calm down, his snarl slowly returning to a grin.

"So… impressed?" he asked, leveling the blade at Charity's airborne silhouette. "I have _way_ more tricks up my sleeve than just wind power."

Charity growled before swooping down, resting her right hand on her left wrist as her wings beat repetitively, barely brushing against the ground. Edge growled, holding his sword in a defensive angle as his instincts flared.

Seconds later, he'd be thanking every individual he knew that he listened to them.

Charity got in point-blank range and rapidly pushed down on her arm, pressing a concealed button and firing a barrage of discs at his body. Edge altered the angle of his blade, knocking away the weapons in a shower of metallic whines and sparks as he eyed Charity's approaching form. He mentally counted down the seconds as she got closer.

'Three… two… one…' Edge leapt high into the air, his broadsword clasped between two hands as he emulated a nearly perfect spin-dash. Edge barreled down like a wheel of death, intent on gashing one of the furry, leathery appendages that were Charity's wings. The sun glinted off of the steel, creating an ominous aura of light about Edge's curled up form.

Luck was on Charity's side as her forward speed was just fast enough to outpace the effect of gravity, thrusting forward with a large flap of her wings and clearing the distance and going into a tuck-and-roll maneuver. Once she was on her feet, she whirled around and smirked.

Edge, through the motion-streaked vision he had as he eyed Charity, noticed that something in her hand was shining. But what could she have? She exhausted all of her discs earlier, didn't she?

'Crap!' Edge hissed. 'She has more!' Charity threw the discs like a Frisbee, letting them arc like a boomerang to hit Edge in the side. Edge managed to avoid, but that sacrificed his aerial stability. He landed on his forepaws and then went into a handstand, sword outstretched as he gently lowered his legs down, flipping back to his battle stance.

"You're good, I'll admit," Edge started, steadying his sword, "but as you can see, I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve. Soul Blade was just the first. So, I suggest you give up." Even as he said this, he knew that Charity wouldn't ever give up. She didn't have a lot of experience, but she had the determination of a true warrior…

Charity, as expected, snarled back. "You wish!" She then sidestepped several times, her fast reflexes causing a blur to slowly form around her until she maneuvered in a circle at a fast speed, forming a tan and brown circle around Edge. Said hedgehog jerked around, his eyes trying to determine where Charity was while also trying to shake the strange urge to reference her new tactic to a Double Team attack.

_'Jokes can wait. Charity just stepped up her game.'_

With that thought, Edge closed his eyes in concentration…

Meanwhile, Raptor was currently moseying through his makeshift tunnels as he played around with Silver Wolf's senses.

_'Hah! And they said digging was stupid!_' he mentally giggled, swiping through the rock as if it were wet tissue paper. His arms and legs were machines, flashing forward and retracting to scoop and throw away the dirt as it fell away at his touch. He dug and dug like a prairie dog on steroids, weaving a web of burrows. Hopefully this would confuse Silver Wolf and eventually exhaust him.

"Alright," Silver Wolf muttered. "Time to play." He lunged to his right and squeezed into one of the tunnels, shuffling his way through at a good pace. It was a good thing that his heightened senses were enabling him to get a good idea of where Raptor was, even with the echo effect that the cave's tunnels were creating.

Even so, Raptor's digging speed and smaller stature still presented a challenge…

* * *

In another part of the forest, a certain blue hedgehog was having some _major_ issues once the group separated. Kazo, being the pacifist that he was, was trying to avoid a scuffle if at all possible, much like Espio. He was pretty much just looking in any spaces where his arm could reach in, praying not to get bitten by an unknown insect. After all, what's the point of goin' to the hospital for anti-venom if you don't know what hurt ya? So, Kazo was simply keeping it safe for a good while, when a voice interrupted him.

"So, there you are." Kazo bit a curse under his breath. Shadow. Of all the people to find him, seriously! Wasting no time, he bolted, swerving past trees at a sonic speed. It was a good thing Sonic had taught him that somewhat tricky Quick Step maneuver. But, the problem was, Kazo was slower than Sonic in any environment—right now he was managing to cruise at about 60 mph, but Sonic could breeze through thickets like these at around 80 mph—due to not having as much experience. Shadow's speed was pretty much the same as Sonic's, so he couldn't outrun the guy. His only option was to evade and lose him. Kazo took a quick right, heading into a thicker part of the forest, but Shadow kept the distance between them the same, purposely staying a foot or so behind. Said black hedgehog held his right arm to his side, the tips of his fingers glowing gold with energy. Kazo's ears twitched as he picked up the telltale sounds of Shadow's signature attack charging.

"Drat!" he muttered, glancing behind him while relying on his peripheral vision to see ahead.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow threw his arm forward, releasing the pent-up energy in a golden-yellow bolt. Kazo darted to his right, jumping into a corkscrew to effectively dodge the attack while decreasing as much air resistance as possible. He landed with a catlike grace and kept on running before realizing that Shadow was now just two feet from his left. To most observers—if there were any—it appeared that the two were simply racing for an undetermined amount of time. Kazo then put on the brakes, his left arm out. Shadow's eyes slightly widened but he managed to avoid getting clotheslined by leaping up and curling inward. After basically somersaulting over Kazo's outstretched arm, he uncurled and threw another Chaos Spear.

This time, Kazo leaned back, like he was in the middle of a limbo game, stretching his hands out and keeping them facing forward, catching himself before his lack of balance would cause him to fall. He then used the added momentum to basically springboard his lower body up to a perfect handstand once the attack flew overhead. Then, pushing down on the ground like he would in a vertical push-up, he built up pressure before leaping high and landing back down in a crouch. An itching, burning feeling made itself known in his shoulders from that stunt.

"Eck… shoulda stretched more…" Kazo groaned, not daring to rub the ache. He shook off the discomfort before running again, Shadow right beside him. 'Doesn't this guy quit?' Seriously, what was with Shadow anyway? Why was he going after him? He didn't have the frickin' flag! Was Team Two just going after the competition? He supposed that would make sense. But wait. Shadow had said _"So, there you are."_ Did that mean he was looking for him specifically?

Kazo had to ditch his internal hypothesizing him as Shadow tried to blitz him with a Homing Attack. Thinking on his feet, he swung a punch. There wasn't a lot of force behind it, but it was enough to stop Shadow in his tracks. The black hedgehog jumped back, landing in a crouch with a small smirk. The Faker's twin was proving to be an interesting opponent. Still not in his league, though.

Kazo's mind briefly flashed to the day Sonic had told him of his racetrack battle with Shadow aboard the Space Colony ARK. In comparison, that was pretty much what they were doing; only this time, Shadow had some more tricks under his sleeve.

"Enough of this," Kazo growled, pouring on the power, increasing his speed in hopes of getting away. "Leave me alone, will ya?" Kazo threw an electric bolt to his left, trying to paralyze Shadow so he could get away. But Shadow would have none of that and used Chaos Control to warp ahead of the attack.

"You can't escape me that easily," Shadow retorted, scoffing at the weak attack.

Kazo's eyes slightly widened, a feral growl escaping his lips. He crossed his arms in front of his body, his palms open and curled, like he was holding a small stress-relief ball or something. A crackling noise filled the air, followed by a buzzing rasp as lightning built in Kazo's hands, forming a small sphere in each. He then quickly uncrossed his arms, his palms facing Shadow. Kazo shot the spheres of electricity at Shadow, who was slightly surprised but not worried. He simply jumped to avoid them, but then had to react again as Kazo threw a right hook.

The ebony hedgehog quickly ducked, watching as the fist made contact with the tree behind him, blinking in surprise as the bark splintered. If that had actually hit, he could have actually taken a small amount of damage.

"What the heck?" Shadow shouted, his voice laced with a fair bit of shock. Kazo leapt back, his fists clenched tightly. It was then that Shadow noticed the metal bands were vibrating, sending ripples of energy through Kazo's arm muscles. So, that's how he did it. He had to say, it was an interesting way to increase power for a while.

"Stop this already!" Kazo snarled before disappearing into the thickets. Right now, he could care less about Shadow's strange desire to fight him. All he wanted to do was find the flag and get out. Was that too much to ask?

"Hey, Shads! You start the party without me?"

Apparently, it was. Sonic appeared in his field of vision, coming up from behind and to his right. The Blue Blusher groaned mentally, cursing his bad luck. Now he had two opponents, both much stronger than he was, practically mocking him! Shadow, once again, was right beside him on his left and gaining speed. None the wiser to Kazo's temper being ignited, Sonic smirked.

"How's about we make this a little race, Kaz?" Kazo's eyes darted feverishly between the two faster hedgehogs, not saying a word for a few seconds.

"Grr… Just leave me alone!" Kazo demanded, his anger starting to rise. He kept running, trying to block out the other two, but they weren't making it easy. Shadow went into another Homing Attack, which Kazo stopped cold with a decent kick. Shadow landed in a crouch but shot ahead, leaving Kazo about seven yards behind.

"Too slow, bro!" Sonic said with a grin as he joined up with Shadow. Kazo scowled deeply at the two.

_'It's just a game to them! They never have to take things like this seriously!'_ He could feel his muscles burning as he tried to speed up, but they were so fast!

Up ahead, Sonic looked at Shadow, his smirk slipping just a bit. "So, Shadow, what'd ya say to Kazo back there to get him so riled up? He's never usually that angry."

Shadow shrugged slightly as they ran, already discounting and forgetting the earlier insult. Sonic blinked a bit but mimicked Shadow's gesture.

"Ah well; no big deal. That just makes this more fun!"

Kazo gnashed his teeth together as he watched the two up ahead. _'Fun, huh? Alright… They wanna play games? Fine! I'll show them!'_

Shadow suddenly felt strange, like there was something gently tugging at his quills. "That's strange… Faker, you feel that?" Sonic looked over, shaking his head.

"No, I feel fine. What is it?"

"It's like there's a storm coming… there's a charge in the air… But there isn't a cloud in the sky…"

Sonic soon felt the same, tugging and shifting sensation. "Now I'm feeling it. Kinda like that time my legs were sore and I shuffled along the carpet and got a whole bunch of static in my quills. But where could there be… Oh no."

Sonic turned around, his eyes widening as Kazo was hunched over, sparks dancing along his arms and legs. The static charge increased to the point where one could taste the energy, it was so palpable. The sparks steadily began to increase and number, turning from a gleaming yellow to a nearly blinding blue.

"Kaz! Stop! Are you crazy? You know what that move can do to you!" Sonic yelled, the charge making his fur stand straight up. Kazo ignored his brother's worried yelling, his rage too far heated at the moment to care. The sparks conglomerated around the blue hedgehog, glowing brighter and brighter.

"**_Raiko Arashi_**!" Kazo called, the sparks flaring into a crackling aura of blue electricity. Shadow, who had turned around just milliseconds after Sonic, raised an eye-ridge at this bizarre technique. _Raiko Arashi_. Thunder Storm. Seemed rather fitting, he guessed. But what was with Sonic and his shouting? Did the move have some severe drawback? This definitely piqued his curiosity.

"Finally," Shadow said with a smirk. "Time to see how you stack up." Sonic's eyes lowered back to normal as his teammate spoke. So that was why Shadow was trying to rile Kazo up. He was looking to see if there was a potential rival in him. Kazo shifted on his right foot, leaned forward, and shot like a bolt of lightning.

WHAM!

Sonic suddenly disappeared from Shadow's sight. Then, a second later, the blue hedgehog was up against a tree, the wind knocked out of him temporarily. Sonic shook his head, leaping forward and curling inward.

'I have to stop Kaz before he really hurts himself! Or anyone else!' Sonic went into a Spin Dash, charging up energy. Orbs of light began to come together around him, then stopped once he stood up, leaning forward on one hand. "Ready… Go!" A blue aura erupted around Sonic as he suddenly went near light speed, his Ancient Light colliding with Kazo's lightning-covered body. They connected, their auras flashing and sparking. The force caused them to rebound like how two magnets of the same charge would repel, but they came right back at each other.

Shadow blinked, his eyes a blur as he tried to ascertain their whereabouts. He could see the flashes of their aura, but as soon as he did, there was a collision elsewhere in the clearing they ended up in. The two were traveling at the brink of visibility, crashing together in brilliant flashes of light and sparks. This seemed to be going on for a long time, but it wasn't that long. Probably five minutes or so.

_'This is strange…'_ Shadow said to himself as he observed what he could. _'The Faker's twin seems to be totally focused on the Faker himself. Maybe I could use this to my advantage…'_ Shadow then charged a Chaos Spear, his crimson orbs trying to follow the two. _'There!'_ He shot the beam at where he thought they would end up, only to scorch a small section of one of the oaks. He kept shooting, trying to blast Kazo with each hit, to no avail for at least ten minutes. Sure, Shadow had very good accuracy, but his targets could only go so fast before he'd lose them. And timing was pretty much useless at this point. He'd have to slow them down below Mach 1, but how? Shadow suddenly had a mental face-palm moment. In his frustration, he had forgotten about the Chaos Emerald! "Chaos… Control!"

The red emerald shone with its light, slowing time to a crawl. Shadow smirked, looking up hoping to see shock-still hedgehogs. What he saw was _not_ two figures. Time had slowed down, but now, instead of only seeing flashes, he could see two very fast streams of light, twisting and bumping into each other at nearly Mach 3 speed.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Shadow muttered as he watched the two. "No time for games…" Shadow then leapt up into the air, two Chaos Spears in his hands. "Hrrah!" Shadow launched the bolts of energy, missing, but not by as much as before. However, the smirk on his face was wiped clean as one of the blurs rebounded then slammed full force into his body before going back to the other. Shadow's eyes narrowed as he stood up, ignoring the pain in his gut. The two blurs finally stopped, showing the two hedgehogs.

Both of them had several bruises and nicks, but no broken bones. Neither had used a lot of energy, so they weren't panting, but there was something wrong with Kazo. His fur had a few sparks running across it, and his muscles were contorting a bit. The blue hedgehog was currently on the ground, his arms and legs unwilling to let him move. Sonic was quick to act, darting over to his slightly younger brother.

"Dude, you okay?" Sonic asked, placing a hand on Kazo's arm. In response, Kazo hissed, like Sonic had touched a sunburn. "Kaz…" Sonic's ears drooped as he supported the weaker hedgehog.

"Aahhh…" Kazo moaned painfully, trying to stand up. "Guh…" Sonic finally got Kazo to his feet, sighing as he watched him try to overcome the irritation. "I-I'm alright… Ow…"

"Well, at least you can make people believe you get out in the sun," the blue blur joked. Kazo attempted a weak glare, but knew it was his brother just trying to lighten the mood and let it go.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said weakly. "Man, I keep forgetting to not go beyond eleven minutes… At least it didn't fry my muscles like that one time. That _hurt_."

Shadow kept his gaze on the two like a silent watchman, waiting for any indication of being able to continue their match. However, seeing Sonic enter big-brother mode was obvious that having another battle would have to wait for another day.

"Faker." Sonic turned to Shadow with a rather sharp what-do-you-want-now glare to make some kind of retort, but the ebony hedgehog continued. "The game will be over in about forty minutes. I'm going to scout ahead."

"Alright. But I'm done playing. I'm gonna take Kaz to the infirmary."

Kaz attempted a weak chuckle. "Aww… You care!"

Sonic gave a lop-sided grin. "Course. That's what big bros are supposed to do, right?"

"You don't have to do this, y'know…" Kaz said, a bit embarrassed. _'But I'm glad you are,'_ was what he didn't say, yet they all heard it. Sonic gently lifted up Kazo and set him on his shoulders, careful to not let his quills cut the other's already damaged body. He then began to power walk toward the entrance as Shadow skated off in the opposite direction.

* * *

Around the time Shadow began chasing Kazo, Natalia was staring down Silver and Knuckles with a neutral expression. This battle had just increased in difficulty for the albino cat, and it wasn't hard for the other two to notice. Her white ears twitched ever so slightly, a sure sign that she was agitated.

Knuckles slipped into his fighting stance, smirking. "Seems that you haven't quite perfected that neutral battle persona, eh?" Knuckles knew quite well from Shade that Natalia was a very friendly—although rather quiet—person to be around. Although staying neutral was a key in being able to stay focused in battle, it took years to master that kind of behavior.

And to be frank, she was able to fool with her face, but she still couldn't get her ears trained. Natalia sighed, her mouth dropping into a slight frown.

"No, not really…" she waved a hand through her fur in slight frustration. She then looked at the two, slipping down into her own stance. "Y'know, you're kinda lucky that you aren't on my bad side."

Knuckles lightly shuddered. He had heard Shade's stories of Natalia's rather disturbing vendettas. Of course, depending on her anger, they could range from simply staring at the person for quite a long period of time—which would creep anyone out—to breaking their bones with her powerful punches then somehow turning them into pathetic wrecks with her psychology skills.

Silver grimaced, remembering what happened once when some lowlife tried to feel her up. _'Poor guy will never be the same again. But he did have it coming…'_

"Don't remind me…" Knuckles muttered, shaking his head. "So, you still want to continue this match? Or what?"

Natalia grinned as she began to levitate some large rocks around her, making them spin by the shifting gravity. "It may not be tennis, but yeah, I'm game. Hyah!" Natalia threw the first rock, which was met with Knuckles' steel hard knuckle-claws. "Hrr… hah!" she then threw two, which were then stopped and discarded by Silver's psychokinesis.

"C'mon, Natalia!" Silver shouted, waving his hand like a tennis racket. "This isn't gonna be any fun unless you try harder!"

Natalia clenched her fists, causing a fluctuation of gravity. The rocks were still floating, but they were slowly being crushed into smaller and smaller rocks. An evil smirk spread across her face before she thrust her hands forward, sending various rocks, usually the size of pebbles but sometimes the size of a golf ball at the two.

"Hey! Gah! Cut that out!" Knuckles growled, wincing from a few of the blows. Silver wasn't having too much trouble, creating a field of sorts to block them. Yet Natalia did manage to knick him with a few. Silver then caused them to drop before levitating Knuckles out of her range. Knuckles hissed as he surveyed his wounds. None of the stones were lodged in his pelt—thank God—but he knew that he would have a few sensitive spots in the morning.

Soon, he was joined by the psychic hedgehog himself, who had a few nicks and bruises himself. Knuckles had to admit, this girl was pretty strong… But he was stronger. Even so, Natalia could make it harder for him to run by making the gravity higher or levitate him out of the way by lowering it. Either way, he was stuck. Silver must've noticed his contemplating, as he cast a worried glance.

"Think of anything?"

"Yeah… Somewhat. How good are you with those powers of yours?"

"Like, how far I can launch things? Or, what am I capable of lifting?"

"How much can you lift?" Knuckles clarified, an eye-ridge raised slightly. Silver cupped his chin and thought. He guessed that if he could launch boulders and cars, that was about 5 tons or so. He relayed his thoughts to Knuckles, and received a smirk.

"Good. Let's get down there. I have an idea." Silver gave a nod and snapped his fingers, causing them to drop towards the trees. Knuckles smirked, going into a spiral and digging into the soft dirt once he hit it. A geyser of silt and clay deposits shot up, obscuring the echidna from Natalia's view. Silver created a psychic field before impact, lowering himself gently onto the grass.

Natalia watched with a raised eye-ridge. What were they planning to do? It was kinda pointless for Knuckles to do an underground attack, and Silver's psychokinesis could still be negated by increasing the gravity… What did they think they could do?

Soon, a light rumbling echoed through the ground, the vibrations running up her body to her head, making her dizzy.

"W-whoa!" Natalia stammered, feeling like she was standing on wiggling gelatin. "What do you think you're doing here?"

Silver walked from out of the trees, smirking as his hands were surrounded in a green aura. The rumbling became more intense, and soon Natalia realized what Silver was doing. A small boulder was being lifted from underground, standing at an impressive five feet.

"Take this!" Silver threw the boulder at Natalia, the rock flying towards the feline at incredible speeds.

"Is that it?" she said with a smirk, lowering the gravity around her and causing the rock to float up and away. However, as she looked at Silver, she saw that the hedgehog had no expression of worry. Then, a small, unassuming shadow covered her own. "Huh?"

Natalia's face was then impacted with about 60 pounds of echidna, the two knu-claws grazing her scalp and leaving two somewhat long marks down her forehead before a metal-topped shoe bonked her on top of the head. But it did only some damage. She growled and responded back with her own vicious punch, getting Knuckles in the kidney.

Knuckles, in spite of the pain, landed and jumped back a few times, regrouping with Silver. He held his left side with his right hand, but managed to keep a wild grin in place.

Natalia gasped in pain as blood dripped from her head in two small rivulets, staining her pelt to match her eyes. Knuckles couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her. She was still his teammate, and a good person, regardless of her creepy skills. This competition was way too brutal…

_'What does the coach expect us to gain from this? I know what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but really…'_ His eye-ridges furrowed in thought. "How was that?"

Natalia groaned slightly, glad that there was a steady supply of endorphins and adrenaline coursing through her veins to dull the pain. "You are _so_ gonna pay for that." Natalia then shot forward, going on the offensive.

She never noticed Silver grin widely.

Knuckles crouched down, causing Natalia to jump over him before he quickly stood up, turning around and swinging his leg. Luckily, she saw the kick coming and did a few cartwheels before waving her hand, causing the ground to buckle and then shoot up.

_'I didn't think she could do something like that!'_ Knuckles mentally shouted, leaping through the levitating cross and over the growing fissures. Natalia got ready to throw a punch, but soon stopped as she felt her limbs grow numb.

"What the heck is—WHOA!" Natalia screamed as she was suddenly_ thrown_ into the air, blue bands of energy latching her arms to her sides. _'Not good!'_ Natalia knew she was stuck. Without her arms, she couldn't alter the gravity around her!

She closed her eyes tightly, bracing for impact and cursing Silver's power, but was stopped by a pair of strong, yet strangely cold, arms. She turned her head and gasped lightly. Shark, currently wearing all of his armor, had managed to stop her fall.

"W-Why did you—?"

"Regardless of us being opponents, this is still just a game, and we're still friends and allies. I won't let anyone get seriously hurt if I can help it," Shark said with a grin, helping her to her feet. Knuckles and Silver walked over with grins on their faces, partly because they knew they won, and partly to tease Shark.

"Oh… thanks," Natalia said before nodding to her classmates. "Good game, you guys. Nice combo!" Knuckles smirked back at her.

"You were pretty good yourself. So, what next? You gonna look for the flag? Or…" he smirked even wider, causing her to blink before narrowing her eyes.

Silver finished. "Are you hoping Casanova will make another move on you?"

Shark glared at the echidna through his visor, hoping to make the red pelt combust.

"Hah, hah," Shark and Natalia said flatly before walking off in separate directions, leaving Knuckles and Silver, who were chuckling to each other.

* * *

_There ya have it, folks! Next chapter will finish it all up, and here are the highlighting characters you can expect: Raptor, Edge, Charity, Silver Wolf, Bolt, Envy, Hanyou, Shark, and Siegfried. Well, until next time!_

_Please review!_


	5. Capture the Flag: Part 3!

Hey, everybody, it's Kazo here! Well, before ya start reading, I got an announcement to make. All those elemental powers the characters that I included in _Welcome to Elements High_ had? Well, turns out my co-author kinda didn't understand what I meant when I said I'd still let them have their powers.

Just to be clear for anyone else who also misunderstood, all the characters will still have their _original_ powers. If they didn't have powers in their official design, they don't have them. Anyways, it'll be too much of a hassle to go back and fix 'em all, most because I couldn't find the original profiles anymore, so… oh well. Can't really do anything about it now.

Anyways, I'm really sorry for how slow things are. But, life itself can be a real monkey wrench. Writer's block for this story, plus plot bunnies for other stories, plus school and other problems, equals very long time getting this done. I was gonna try and finish it all in this, but I feel bad for leaving you guys hanging. Chapter six will definitely wrap these fights up and keep the plot moving! Promise!

Oh, and one more thing! Three people asked if I was accepting more students. Well, sorry guys, but no. I'm just sticking with the characters I got in Elements High so no one can complain about it being interactive or whatever.

OK then, on with the story!

* * *

Also around the time Natalia was staring down her opponents, a certain light-user found her way to a nearby lake towards the northeastern edge of the forest. Sweat stood out against her forehead and she was leaning over, catching her breath from running so much after that incident with Shadow.

"Whew… Alright… I think I'm OK here. Now to look for… Wow!" Envy finally caught her breath—and had it stolen again—as she realized the beauty of the scenery around her. This was amazing! The sand was warm and bright, and the water was so clean! She could almost see the bottom of the lake, it was so calm!

"Oh… C'mon!" a voice suddenly hollered, causing her to yip. She whirled in the direction to see a slightly disgruntled Bolt shaking wet grass from his boots. "This is getting ridiculous… Where is that flag…?!"

Envy could tell he'd been asking that question to no one in particular several times for quite a while. It was obvious that he'd snap soon if he didn't get an outlet or find the flag, and he was her intended opponent, so…

"_Ohayo_, Bolt-san!" she said, dashing over, a grin on her face.

"Oh, hey, Envy. Uh… what exactly are you doing here?" Bolt was a bit confused. Why would somebody on the opposing team come over greeting him? Did she forget? Or was she planning to distract him? One could never tell, especially with Envy's randomness. He frowned slightly, his eyes tense. Luckily, Envy decided to speak up before he started prematurely charging an attack.

"I ran here to make sure Shadow-san wouldn't chase me again." Bolt relaxed slightly, knowing how sadistic the Ultimate Life Form could be behind the wheel.

"Well, that's all well and good, but you're my opponent… Why did you run over here?"

Envy giggled then responded with: "Well, I saw that you were getting frustrated, and I know you can let a few sparks fly when you get mad. And, well… I was actually looking to battle you anyway. So I thought I'd help you work out some of your stress with a spar!"

Bolt couldn't help but give a surprised blink. Envy actually wanted to fight? He smirked at the other wolf.

"You got a deal! Let's go!" Bolt's smirk became a feral grin as he settled into a fighting stance. Envy grinned back and flipped backwards several times, her eyes glinting in the sunlight. "You have the first move."

"_Yatta_! Hyah!" Envy gathered her hands in front of her body before pushing outwards, launching a ball of light at Bolt. Bolt knew that compacted light generated plenty of heat, so he dodged to the side, not realizing that he'd been tricked. He turned to launch a bolt of lightning when he lost his balance.

'Wha?! She tricked me?!' Bolt mentally yowled as he fell backwards to avoid another limb. He flipped up, gathering lightning in his palm and grabbing Envy's outstretched leg, using just enough to mess with her nerves. Using Envy's paralysis to his advantage, Bolt jumped and kicked out with both feet, contacting her solar plexus and rebounding in the opposite direction.

The lightning-user was about to charge when he suddenly noticed that there was a white blindfold on his eyes.

"Gotcha, Bolt-san!" he heard Envy chuckle, seeming louder due to his hindered sight.

"Where are you?! Just wait till I—" Bolt soon realized that he wasn't wearing an itchy blindfold. Rather, it was a white wall in front of his eyes, which he discovered were squinted shut. "You little twerp." He managed to keep his voice even. "You just used the lake's reflective properties to blind me…"

Bolt knew he hit the nail on the head. He had been the victim of surface glare once in the city. And if he had to say, concrete glare was cannon fodder compared to the brightness of water glare. Envy giggled before throwing a rock towards his left, the noise causing him to turn. Bolt launched a bolt at the spot, but was so distracted in doing so that he didn't hear the soft padding of Envy's shoes against the sand until it was too late.

CRUNCH!

Bolt yowled indignantly as a searing flame of pain shot through his face, the nerves in his jaw screaming as blood vessels popped, sure to leave a nasty bruise later. More than a little ticked off, Bolt lashed out with his arm, blasting Envy with a solid right hook into her ribs. The lightning-user felt some satisfaction in hearing Envy let out a similar holler and did a series of flips to gain more distance.

Soon, his retinas began to regain focus, the world around him starting to regain color and detail. He could make out the tan, green, and deep brown of the ground, the blue of the sky, the growing shape on the ground…

Growing?!

Bolt's slightly-functioning eyes widened as he threw his right hand down as if attempting to slap the ground beneath him. Envy stopped as the motion caused a field of visible electricity to flicker into view around the other wolf, buzzing and crackling in warning of its lethalness.

"_Kuso_!" Envy hissed, her ears flattened against her head in frustration. Bolt, even though he couldn't see Envy fully, smirked at her.

"Better watch what you say, Envy. What would Hanyou say if he found out that you were using such language?"

This naturally caused Envy's look of agitation to change, rapidly shifting from curiosity, to shock, then to what could only be described as a disgruntled pout. It was times like this that Bolt was glad to know what people were feeling by just their presence. But still…

"It's too bad I can't see your face. I bet it's priceless." Bolt then guffawed, crossing his arms as he crowed. Envy then glared slightly at Bolt.

"You know, it's times like this I really wish you never learned Japanese."

Envy's indignant huff only served to make Bolt laugh more. Naturally, this caused Envy's fur to bristle. Well, she was going to show him! Smirking, she leaned down, acting like she was going to run at him. Bolt raised an eyebrow in interest. He knew Envy wasn't stupid enough to risk her life to land a hit… What was she planning?

The green wolf got an answer as pain erupted in his forehead. White spots flashed in his scrunched eyes as he yowled, gripping the spot that was aflame with pain. Pulling back, he noticed a small sliver of something gray-colored in the midst of a thin layer of blood.

He looked down after registering a _clink_ sound on the ground and saw something that made his eyes grow wide. A tennis ball sized rock lay harmlessly on the ground, the topside of it dusted with blood.

"You… actually threw a rock at me?" he asked, his mouth hung open in a display of sheer shock. Who knew that girl had that kind of ingenuity?! The electricity was only a charge, devoid of any heat like a lightning bolt. The rock was allowed to pass through his force field with complete ease without risk of breaking, like it would if a lightning bolt hit it.

Envy gave Bolt a smirk, which he could now see as his temporary blindness wore off completely. Bolt snapped his fingers, causing the field to disengage. It seemed his defense would need some work. It was time to go on the offensive! Lunging forward, Bolt gathered a small charge of electricity in his palm. Envy leaned to the side and smacked his hand away, going into a spin to strike him with a kick. Bolt simply jumped up from that, throwing the bolt at his opponent. The attack hit with the brute force of a well-aimed punch, knocking her onto her back.

Just like her feral ancestors, Envy rolled to the side, staying on all fours to lunge forward. Bolt sailed forward in his jump, giving her a good aim at his back. She quickly threw a ball of light, which hit him on his right side, right near the lung. Bolt was out of breath before he even hit the ground. Envy crossed her arms and wore a face-splitting grin. Bolt gasped and coughed as he managed to get air back into his lungs, glaring hellfire at the younger wolf.

Envy dusted off her red shirt, unfazed by the sharp glare. She was fazed, however, when lightning crackled around Bolt's form. His green fur stood up from his charge, gaining a gleam of light on the tips of each strand. It almost seemed to give him a yellow aura. He held his hand out in front of him, forcing the lightning to form around it. Then, in a flash, Bolt shot off a flurry of bolts. Envy didn't have Sonic's light-speed reflexes, so she was forced to counter with her own.

Thrusting her hands out, multiple orbs of light formed around her. In that same second, the orbs launched themselves at the lightning bolts, causing a multitude of explosions.

The pressure caused by so many explosions may as well have been caused by a block of C4, as the two combatants were blasted back, howling in pain as the wave smacked against their torsos and damaged their sensitive hearing. They slid along the sand, the gritty rocks tearing at Envy's clothes and both wolves' unclothed skin. Rock particles were thrown into the air, obscuring them from sight.

Bolt coughed as he made to stand up, the sandy air making it difficult to breathe. He stumbled backwards, careful not to overexert his lower back. While his armored vest kept his back higher off the ground, he wasn't able to escape getting a few cuts and bruises below it.

Once out of the beige cloud, he allowed himself a deep breath. Sighing in relief, he massaged his unprotected back to ease the pain. Once it dulled away, he threw a bolt into the cloud, using the huge burst of static to clear it.

"What the—?" Bolt cried. The coastline was completely empty. Envy was absolutely nowhere in sight! He frowned. Did Envy actually have the ability to turn herself invisible? After all, it was only a matter of manipulating light… 'No. Envy may be able to do that, but not at her age. She doesn't have enough exper—oh shit!'

A small golden arrow flew by his head, bursting into sparks of light as it hit the ground. Bolt turned, noting a glint in the trees. It seemed Envy was getting serious, if she was pulling out the ninja tactics. If anything, Bolt was thankful that he could see Envy had none of her weapons on her. Grinning in excitement, he rushed back into the forest, ready to play. Upon entering the forest, he tried to sniff Envy's location out. Even if he couldn't see her, he could still smell her at least. And that was about as good as seeing.

'There!' he shot above his head to his right, scorching a branch slightly. To his disappointment, he hit nothing, only rustling some leaves.

"Sorry, Bolt! Try again!" Envy giggled, sounding from his left.

"Big mistake!" he called back, throwing a few bolts in that direction. He could hear quick rustling, meaning Envy just managed to dodge. In response, Envy blasted small pellets of light from the canopy, raining them down over Bolt. Bolt growled as he surrounded his hands with lightning, using them to form a shield overhead.

After getting bombarded with shells of light, Bolt sent out a wide pulse shockwave, hoping to catch Envy and upset her nerves. Instead, he heard slight rustling from farther away than before.

"Drat," Bolt growled. He wasn't getting much luck here. Envy was jumping out of range faster than he could aim. It didn't matter if he was wielding an element as fast as light, if he couldn't get the right angle. Snarling, he began to claw his way up the trees. If he couldn't get her from below, he'd just have to fight on her level then! He clambered up the tree until he was in the midst of the canopy, doing his best to sniff her out and listen for her movements.

Taking a chance, he leapt off the branch and latched onto another, climbing onto it before his grip would fail him. As he steadied himself, he couldn't help but feel envious. How did that little girl manage to do it? She leapt with so much grace she made tree jumping look easy! He threw a bolt off to his right, hoping to get her spooked enough to move. Bolt grinned as he got a response. She moved. But where she moved to was not what Bolt expected.

His eyes widened as she actually ran over _to _him, landing on the branch he occupied with just a single foot holding her balance. She whirled around, bringing her other foot to Bolt's head. Losing his focus from the sideways kick, he jumped off and blasted lightning up in mid-fall. Envy yelped as she barely dodged one but got hit by another, leaving a scorch mark on her arm. As Bolt caught himself and landed on the ground safely, he smirked up at Envy, who was dusting herself off.

Sadly, the attack did very little, and Envy leapt across the gap with such speed Bolt lost her in an instant.

"Alright! That's it!" Bolt growled. "She wants to play games, huh? Well, I'll play!" With a howl that would make normal wolves proud, Bolt blasted a large bolt at the tree Envy was in, but didn't aim for her. He flash-burned the trunk of the mighty tree with the bolt, and the resulting thunderclap from the lightning spelled the tree's doom. The plant groaned and creaked until it fell over, making a mighty crash that echoed across the area.

Envy shot out of the tree, sending a few stray spheres of light in Bolt's direction. Bolt expertly dodged the spheres and shot at the tree Envy was jumping toward. It pitched itself forward, causing Envy to change direction and Bolt to jump back to keep from getting squashed. As Envy ducked into the canopy, she watched with wide-eyes.

'Bolt-san is trying to limit my jumping space! If I don't stop him soon he'll knock over every tree in this forest!' A sudden crack caused her to snap out of her thoughts, and found herself starting to fall forward.

"AHH!" Envy let out a scream of panic as she scrambled to get around, weaving through branches to get to the other side.

Bolt's eyes widened as he heard Envy's scream. Even though he clearly saw her get to safety, he found it hard to believe he had actually scared the girl. He felt bad, but he knew Envy was talented enough to get out of it. He looked around at the other trees, trying to see where Envy was probably going to hide. He charged up a bolt, but was forced to stop as he heard something approaching. He looked around before sniffing the air. Whoever it was didn't smell exactly like Envy. But who was—?

A sharp whistling sound came from his right, and Bolt turned. His red eyes widened considerably as a _huge_ rock entered his range just a bit too fast to duck from. The impact on his head knocked him off his feet, sending him flying into a bush.

Thankfully, he didn't get knocked out and managed to sit back up after a few seconds. He groaned from the disorientation and growled from the pain, blinking away the tears that started to form in his eyes. He soon narrowed his expression into a glare as he saw Hanyou stepping out of the treeline.

"Sorry to crash the party, but I couldn't help but be curious. After all, it's not every day you hear trees falling like that."

* * *

Silver Wolf was _really_ starting to hate Raptor. The kid was annoying, crafty, resourceful, and unpredictable. In his opinion, that was the _worst_ combination to experience. The fire-user actually felt cold as he painfully thought about what the kid would be in the future.

'If he has one,' he mentally snarled, using his enhanced hearing to try and track down the dino. Now that he was in the tunnels, the echo effect was limited somewhat, but it still sounded like his digging was coming from two directions at once. Picking up his pace, he weaved his way through a maze of tunnels, shooting out fireballs at every crossroad he got to.

He was starting to get annoyed at the lack of screaming, though. Just how much digging was this kid doing? And how wasn't the ground caving in yet?

"Dammit… This kid is getting on my nerves! Huh?" Silver Wolf peered into the narrow distance and saw a strangely lit area up ahead. "Sweet! Light!" He padded his way to the source, waiting quietly. 'Three… two… one!' He lunged out of the tunnel, expecting to see the dino's surprised face. Instead what he saw was… "This is… This is the same freaking room I fell into!" he growled, kicking at the dirt. He'd just went in a circuit through those tunnels!

Sadly, Raptor was still digging away, and he was far off. The only good side was that now the echo was lessened.

"To the left!" he muttered, making sure to scratch the tunnel he left and the one he was entering. He had to admit, Raptor was good at making a maze. He'd just have to try and make some marks to keep his place. He lit up his finger in a bright flame, carving an arrow beneath him to mark how he traveled down the path. That way, even if Raptor found one and covered it up, chances were higher that he wouldn't enter the beginning room again.

He crawled through the narrow network of tunnels, keeping an ear to the wall so he could try and sense any type of vibrations. They were very faint, but he could tell that he was correct in the general direction. Raptor was pretty much straight ahead, give or take a few turns. It'd only get difficult when he got closer.

'Sometimes I think having enhanced hearing is more of a curse than a blessing…' Sighing softly, he drew another arrow in flame as he headed to his right at a crossroads. "Ouch…!" Silver Wolf suddenly winced as he scraped his arm against a rock. He clasped the rock and was surprised to see it was just a tiny silver of rock, just barely poking out from the earth… He looked at it closely, almost reeling back when he saw what it was.

'That's… anthracite coal! How the hell did Raptor claw through that stuff!? Oh, wait, Raptor… Right. The master of unpredictability… Makes me wonder what new trick he's gonna pull out when we fight again…'

It was then that the wolf suddenly started wondering how long he was down in this tunnel. How long of class did they have left? They hadn't been fighting for too long… About fifteen minutes, maybe? If so, they had about forty-five minutes… Yeah, that sounded about right. He had to wonder what all was going on in the canyon. Charity was a good fighter, but Edge supposedly had some freaky powers…

With that thought in mind, he sped up as fast as he could. If Charity succumbed to Edge's fierce attacks, he was going to have a huge problem. He needed to find Raptor and kick the dino's butt, fast! His legs nearly sprayed up dust and pebbles as he went through crossroad after crossroad, letting the vibrations in the rock clue him in. When he got close enough to hear the sound almost overtake his ears, he began to pull at his body's energy.

"Hrrr…RAH!" he suddenly howled, sending out a large fireball in a sweeping motion down the next turn and out of sight. He crawled after it, expecting to hear a familiar sizzling sound. Instead he got a much more hollow sound. 'No way. Did I really get him? Finally?'

"My butt's on fire!" Raptor's voice suddenly hit his eardrums, and a sudden round of rapid digging followed. "Ow ow OW!"

Chuckling evilly to himself, he followed the voice to see dust falling from the top of the tunnel. He quickly followed, ignoring the dirt hitting his face. Raptor busted through the topsoil just mere seconds before he did. Not to be deterred, he scrambled up the tunnel and got back above ground. He looked about him to see that they had only gone as far as the edge of the canyon.

"Man… That was some maze. Now where is…?"

"Over here!" Raptor shouted, causing Silver Wolf to turn to his right. Once he did, he blinked in surprise and amusement. The velociraptor was decked out in a white gi and a red headband, almost as if giving the impression that he was mimicking some karate video game character. But what really surprised the fire-user was that his blue eyes were narrowed in a fierce glare. He could tell it was a practiced look and not totally genuine, but it still surprised him. "I have the skills to defeat you now."

Raptor watched carefully as he gauged Silver Wolf's reaction. He had almost perfectly mastered the stance he'd worked so hard to imitate. He would've had his mouth set in a neutral line, but the giddiness of trying out his newest tricks and toys was leaving him unable to do so. This was furthered by Silver Wolf's reaction to his glare. He prided himself on perfecting that part specifically. It'd be quite scary if it was dark out and one wouldn't see him smirking.

"OK…" Silver Wolf stated before settling back into his fighting stance. "So, if a gi and headband can give you some skills, let's see 'em!"

Raptor nodded and made the first move. He darted forward, lashing out with a solid kick to Silver Wolf's abdomen that knocked him backwards. His sharp claws grazed the skin slightly before he jumped back, shift-jumping from one foot to the other, ready to change direction at a moment's notice. He went off to the left and came around to Silver Wolf's side, punching him in the ribs. Silver Wolf barely registered the fact that he actually got moved as pain erupted in the spots Raptor made contact with.

'Where did he gain that kind of force?!' the elemental wolf thought as he struggled to regain balance. Thankfully, Raptor jumped back, giving him a few seconds to react.

He jumped into the air and rapidly double-kicked in midair, producing a fireball with each kick. Raptor used his fast reflexes to dodge most of the flaming spheres, only getting nicked by a few. Snarling, he let out a roar only a velociraptor could do and ran at him. Silver Wolf crossed his arms and built up energy in his body as he fell back down, throwing out his arms as he landed. The result was a wave of fire that spread wider as it got closer to Raptor. In response, Raptor leapt over the line of flames and threw out a punch.

Silver Wolf crouched low, expecting to be just hit in the stomach, but got something much worse.

"Shoryuken!" Raptor roared, whaling Silver Wolf with a sweeping punch right in the left side of his jaw. Tears sprang to his eyes as Rap suddenly twitched his hand upwards, somehow channeling all the force of the punch upwards. Silver Wolf was launched several feet up into the air, coming back down rather harshly. Silver Wolf coughed, causing new pain to erupt in his jaw. Doing his best to not snarl in anger, he stood up and felt the spot Rap had punched him. He hissed in pain, noting with only a small amount of glee that Raptor hadn't broken his jaw. But it did seem slightly dislocated. Bracing himself, he pushed on the right side of his muzzle, resetting the bone.

"Ouch!" he whined, rubbing at the spot as he felt the pain slightly diminish. "Man, Raptor… Never knew you had it in ya." Raptor grinned as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Trust me, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"

With that short exchange over, Rap ran up again, lashing out with a kick. Silver Wolf grabbed the dino's foot and quickly spun around once, throwing him back before following up with a fireball. Raptor yelped as he was hit by the fireball, going into a tuck and roll to keep the flames from ruining his gi. He soon came to a stop, growling as Silver Wolf put him on the defensive.

Fireball after fireball came at him, burning a bright orange, for which Raptor was somewhat thankful. While the flames still hurt, his scales could protect him from them. Had the flames been higher intensity, like apparently Shark's welding torches were, he would have been a lot less lucky. Growling, Raptor sidestepped the majority of the fireballs, having a few close calls.

"Ok, that's it! Let's see how you like this!" Raptor then started weaving his hands together, causing a blue spark to appear in the middle of them. He then cupped his hands to his side, forming a small blue ball of energy. He then roared as he threw his hands forward, shoving the ball toward Silver Wolf. "Hadouken!"

Silver Wolf's eyes widened as the blue ball of energy neared him, catching him completely off guard. He had no time to react, taking the brunt of the blow in his torso. The wind was knocked out of his lungs as he was flown backwards about five feet, landing uncomfortably on his stomach.

"What… the heck… was _that_?" he gasped, blinking in shock as he noticed his white shirt had a large tear in it from the force of the attack. He stood up, glaring down Raptor, who was standing with his hands splayed out in front of him. It was then that he noticed a small blue circle, about the size of a marble, in the center of his palms. That circle was set into a thin metal strip that almost looked like string, which traveled down to a somewhat thicker ring around his wrists.

"Stole these bad boys from Shark's workshop. Dunno how they do it, but the energy ball thing they make looks so much like a Hadouken!" Raptor allowed himself to have a fanboy moment, looking in awe at the devices.

"Really," Silver Wolf sighed. "First you get a gi, then you do that energy thing. What's next, some sort of spinning kick?" Silver Wolf's expression betrayed his inner confusion. He wasn't sure what kind of person Raptor was emulating, so why did he assume a spinning kick?

Raptor's answering smirk was the only reply he got before he rushed forward, cocking back a fist. He leaned to the side, digging his claws into the dirt to throw up a cloud of dust. With a cry, he swung, landing a solid forward punch into Silver Wolf's forehead. The punch was immediately followed by Raptor whirling around, catching him with his somewhat longer tail. Silver Wolf's back hit the ground before he could stop himself.

"That should teach ya to not predict my moves."

Growling, Silver Wolf launched a fireball from his foot before hopping to a standing position. He rushed forward to land a few punches on Raptor's face. He followed up with a close-range fireball, causing Raptor to fly backwards. Raptor retaliated by forming another Hadouken. Silver Wolf thought fast. He didn't have the time to dodge it, because of how close it was. He thrust out his hand, launching a fireball straight at the blue sphere. The two attacks collided, fizzling each other out.

"Huh! Well, that was lucky!" Silver Wolf mentally patted himself on the back. If he could keep those things from hitting him just like that, this fight would be over in no time.

That his first wrong assumption.

Raptor had managed to sneak through Silver Wolf's area of vision in the small moment the canine was busy complimenting himself. He rushed forward faster than Silver Wolf could detect and thrust out his right leg, using the speed to torque his body into a fast rotation. The furious spinning kick only managed to connect once, but the one kick was enough to hit Silver Wolf into a tree.

"Oww…" Silver Wolf groaned as he slid down the rough bark in an almost cartoonish fashion. He managed to regain his footing, and ran at Raptor again. He leapt into the air before lashing out both legs at once, landing a square hit in Raptor's chest. He managed to perform two more rapid kicks before having to stop, which Raptor took advantage of by tackling his opponent. The two rolled around as they tried to get the other to go flying off so they could strike. But both of them were incredibly stubborn, resulting in a continuous episode of a growling, rolling ball of bodies.

Silver Wolf finally managed to get enough of an opening to hit Raptor with a few fireballs at point-blank range, sending up in into the air and leaving three holes in his sleeves. He got back to his feet and started to throw a few fireballs in rapid succession, causing Raptor to dodge.

Raptor started panting as he dodged the flaming spheres. The heat was really starting to get to him. He quickly-sidestepped a fireball before firing a Hadouken at another. He quickly leapt over yet another before using a Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku to carry him over a few more.

'What can I do?' Rap thought. 'I need a more that can plow through these fire… wait a minute!' Raptor smirked as he cupped his hands to his side for what appeared to be another Hadouken. However, this time, he held the position for a second longer, allowing the energy to compress into it, and yet make a slightly bigger ball.

"Shinku…" he chanted as he charged. He then thrust his hands forward with a cry of, "Hadouken!" The energy ball flew toward Silver Wolf at a much faster pace than the other Hadoukens, but Silver Wolf didn't panic. Instead, he let loose a fireball, hoping to neutralize it like the other Hadoukens. To Silver Wolf's surprise, the energy ball plowed through like a bulldozer would a pile of sand and kept coming to Silver Wolf.

Caught off guard by this variation of the Hadouken, he was hit square in the chest and felt the ball hit him what seemed like seven times before he was thrown back into a boulder. He impacted the large rock back first, coughing as the wind was driven from his lungs. His eyes were unfocused for a few seconds, but it didn't take him long to get his bearings. As soon as the cobwebs faded, he could see Raptor standing back with a smirk. Silver Wolf growled. Raptor was going to regret getting so cocky. And he knew just how to do it. Slowly, he turned his hands to press his palms against the rock. He began to focus on his energy, drawing it out slowly.

Raptor grinned as he saw Silver Wolf look at him. That Shinku Hadouken was just what he needed! It seemed the guy wasn't going to be getting out of the boulder anytime soon. With a smirk, he began to walk forward. A sudden noise caused him to stop, and his eye-ridges rose as he saw something odd about the rock. Was that… smoke?

Silver Wolf let loose a rush of firepower from his hands, smirking dangerously. With the small amount of space between his hands and the rock, it was impossible for the fire to form into a ball. Which meant the energy had nothing to do but keep rising. In a grand spectacle, the fireballs exploded inside the rock, launching Silver Wolf out of them in a cloud of smoke and dust. He leaned forward, and the resulting trajectory allowed him to deal a nasty headbutt into Raptor's gut.

Raptor picked himself up from Silver Wolf's fiery rocket attack, trying hard to ignore the pain in his gut. With a snarl, he leapt into the air and punched the elemental prince in the skull before landing and launching a knee to Silver Wolf's stomach. As it connected, Raptor grabbed his shoulders and rolled onto his back, shooting his foot out, which launched Silver Wolf into the air and face-first into the dirt. Both fighters rolled back onto their feet, wobbling slightly.

"Not bad, Raptor," Silver Wolf allowed himself to complement his opponent. "You sure are good at martial arts."

Raptor grinned. "Thanks. Like I said, I have the skills to defeat you know. Might as well give up, SW."

"Oh, is that so… Well then…" Silver Wolf grinned dangerously at Raptor, closing his eyes to focus his power. "Try this on for size!" he called out as blue flames erupted around his ankles. The energy cascaded to surround his boots while rising up to his kneecaps.

"Aw! Too soon! I was hoping to make a Pokémon joke!" Raptor pouted.

"Trust me. You'll be wishing it was a Blaziken you were fighting when I'm done!" Silver Wolf dashed forward at Raptor at an incredibly fast speed before going into a handstand, turning on his side.

Raptor was about to crack another joke, but his eyes widened as the wolf made another move. Using the momentum of his run, Silver Wolf swung himself into a perfect cartwheel. Raptor made to jump back, but Silver Wolf was much faster than he anticipated. He landed two strong kicks to Raptor's head and chest, instantly leaving a burn on Raptor's scaly skin.

Silver Wolf managed to land a few more glancing blows to Raptor's arms and torso as the raptor made to protect himself as best as he could. But by now, the pain was starting to get him ticked.

'Alright, Silver Wolf, that's how you wanna play? Fine!' Raptor was quick to realize that there was enough of a pause in Silver Wolf's attack to capitalize on. The flames didn't surround his arms yet, so there was an easy opening. He quickly jumped back and kicked at the ground to speed away, prompting Silver to speed up.

Once in range, Silver Wolf stopped mid cartwheel and spun on the axis of his heel to deliver a hammering blow. Raptor crouched down low just as Silver Wolf's follow up was about to connect. Drawing back his left fist, he let a smirk grow on his face.

"Metsu…" he growled. The shotoclone dino then unleashed an uppercut into Silver Wolf's stomach. It took everything the elemental prince had not to vomit as he was lifted off the ground from the force of the hit.

Next, Raptor used his right hand to dish out a huge uppercut into Silver Wolf's chin, almost dislocating it. He held it for a few seconds, allowing power to be stored into his fist.

"SHORYUKEN!" Raptor yelled as he leapt up slightly, causing Silver Wolf to be launched into the air. He watched as his opponent howled in pain as he soared high. Silver Wolf landed back on the ground with a sickening crunch, groaning heavily. Raptor smirked as he saw that Silver Wolf was down. He walked over to his fallen opponent, a smartass remark on the tip of his tongue. He was _so _gonna enjoy rubbing it in. He stood in front of Silver Wolf, leaning in.

"B…guh me-ake…" Silver Wolf mumbled through the dirt.

"Huh? What was that?" Raptor asked, cocking his head. His eyes widened as Silver Wolf's paw lurched up and grabbed his collar, followed by the rest of his body.

"Big mistake!" Silver Wolf threw Raptor into the air before placing both of his hands out in front of him. A fireball formed between them, burning a slightly brighter orange than the usual ones. Raptor had just enough time to gulp before the point-blank-range attack impacted him, sending him flying and spinning. Unable to get any control, he was forced to go along for the ride until he was smacked into several tree branches, then the thick trunk of the tree. He fell about six inches, landing on a branch. Thankfully, he landed on his butt instead of his crotch. Shaking off the blow, he stood up and steadied himself.

"Time to start camping!" He cupped his hands by his side and fired off a Hadouken. As soon as it left his hands, he gathered the energy for another Hadouken and fired. Soon, the shotoclone was raining down a volley of Hadoukens at Silver Wolf, who was forced to go on the defensive.

Silver Wolf growled as he jumped in all directions, tucking and rolling to avoid the bright and powerful spheres. He threw a few fireballs up at the tree where Raptor was hiding, but he couldn't get a clear shot because of the multitude of branches in his way. Hadoukens exploded on the ground all around him, turning the field into a mess of little craters.

"Damn it…" Silver Wolf muttered. "Get out of there!" Silver Wolf hit a few with his fireballs. He had to wonder what would last longer: him, or the machine?

At that though, Silver Wolf's fists and jaw clenched. No. He would _not_ lose to some simple machine! Burning anger flowed through his veins, causing the air around him to heat up. Fire began to dance along his wrists, making them glow in the light. With a roar, he started running. He weaved through the Hadoukens raining down, shooting out his fireballs with a force almost double of what he had done before. The tree began to shake, and the branches slowly began to burn away. With each fireball, little ends would blacken and fall.

Silver Wolf threw two fireballs in rapid succession, causing them to feed each other and give the tree a good shake. A branch fell clear off of the tree, and soon he could see the white of Raptor's gi.

"You're mine now!" Silver Wolf called. He threw one more fireball up at the tree, heading right in Raptor's direction.

As soon as Raptor saw Silver Wolf found him, he winced. That fireball was closing in fast. _Really_ fast.

'Time to blow this joint!' he thought as he hopped to a lower branch. The fireball blasted the trunk where he was standing, sending waves of heat and embers onto Raptor. His keen hearing picked up the sound of creaking. 'Man! This thing's about to fall big time! I gotta get outta here for real!' He looked around, trying to find a path that would give him cover. But everywhere he looked, he saw large gaps of light and falling leaves decreasing his hiding spots.

Raptor knew right then and there he was going to have to just jump off. But that wasn't very useful. How could he jump out and manage to keep his defenses up? He peered out of a small gap, and broke out in a grin. Silver Wolf was getting really close. Close enough, in fact, that Raptor could easily rush him! It was perfect!

Raptor shifted his body to let him fall off the branch, turning to face the ground. He planted his feet against the trunk and sunk into the bark. He closed his eyes as he prepared himself. It was a lot harder going down than it was going up. He had to go fast enough to keep from falling. Faster than gravity could pull. It wasn't what Ryu could do, but this was all him now. He took a deep breath, leaned forward, and _dashed._ Branch after branch flew past him as he ran down the tree, expertly shifting his weight to follow the sharp curve at the bottom.

He looked up and saw Silver Wolf fire off a fireball before the wolf noticed him. Raptor roared like only his species could before he leapt up to lock eye-levels with Silver Wolf. "Tatsumaki… Senpuukyaku!" Raptor proclaimed as he swung out his leg and went into a spin. The added force of his run made him go three times faster, meaning he'd land three times as many hits. Even if Silver Wolf dodged, there was no way he could escape what the added momentum was giving him.

Raptor watched as instead of dodging, Silver Wolf closed his eyes in intense focus. A fireball formed in his hands, burning brightly. The raptor's eyes widened as his opponent slammed his hands together, causing the fireball to burst into two wildly flicking lines of fire. With a low roar, the lines of fire became more animated as they swooped around his form, forming two loops of dancing flames. The loops crossed over each other, forming an X-shape from the front.

Unable to stop himself, he landed in the midst of the fiery rings. His rapid spinning caught the flames in the small wisps of wind surrounding his body, forming a fire of tornado around his body. Through the haze of fire, he could see Silver Wolf smirking. He growled, sucking in his tears as he tried to withstand the blaze. The move finally gave him mercy, letting him fall. He stayed on his hands and knees, panting heavily as he tried to dull the pain of the burns.

"Had enough yet, Rapt—?" He was suddenly interrupted as Raptor shot up in retaliation, kicking back like a donkey. The powerful back-kick impacted his chest, driving the wind out of his lungs for a split second. His inhale was sharply cut off as his back hit a tree for the second time, causing him to go into a coughing fit. He landed on his ass, unable to function as his worry was only focused on getting air. He shakily steadied himself, then noticed Raptor looking all the while like a kid that had just been given candy. Silver Wolf growled as he flung himself from the tree, intent on making Raptor pay.

Ignoring Silver Wolf's furious growl, Raptor giggled gleefully in his head. He had the best way to end this match, here and now! Dodging every fireball Silver Wolf launched at him, he closed the distance between them until he was directly in front of the prince. Then, drawing back his fist, he let loose his dreaded Ultra Combo.

"Metsu…" he chanted as he performed the attack all over again. "Shoryuken!" As Silver Wolf was launched, Raptor cupped his hands by his side, charging the energy again. "Shinku…" He started to mentally count down in his head. When he got to two-and-a-half, he fired off his Shinku Hadouken.

The blast hit Silver Wolf on his way down, juggling him in the air long enough for Rap to perform a drop kick into his side. Silver Wolf hit off the ground, rolling along as he doubled over in pain before mercifully stopping at the base of a hill.

Silver Wolf groaned as he held his stomach, wondering if he had managed to bruise the organ inside. His entire torso felt like it was on fire, and not in a good way. His nerves were in overdrive, causing him to whine repeatedly. He forced himself to take a few deep breaths, hoping to calm himself enough to let his body block it out. He clenched the ground as he eased himself into a kneeling position, rubbing his abdomen to help soothe some of the pain.

His eyes widened considerably as he suddenly felt all of his pain lift in that matter of seconds. He stood up just in time to see Raptor trying to go in for a finishing blow that would have hit his head had he not stood up. Grinning wildly, Silver Wolf grabbed Raptor's arm, pinning it behind his back and slamming him on the ground in one smooth move. Raptor managed to turn his head just enough to look at Silver Wolf, surprise in his eyes.

"H-How are you…?!"

"Looks like I got my second wind, Raptor. Now you're in trouble," Silver Wolf replied as he picked Raptor back up. He spun around at high speed and threw Raptor, throwing several fireballs at his form, sending him further and further away. He ran after his airborne form, sliding underneath of him. Once in range, Silver Wolf swung his legs up, rabbit-kicking the small dino all over his torso before finishing up with a fire-enhanced double-kick.

"GAH!" Raptor screamed as he felt the kick almost explode against his skin, again leaving a scorch mark on his gi. He landed on the ground, grimacing in agony. He looked up at Silver Wolf with undying determination. "Dang it! That really hurt… Good combo… But it ain't over till it's over!" 'Third time's the charm, right? So…' Raptor smirked as he ran at Silver Wolf, sidestepping at sonic speed to throw Silver Wolf off his position.

"Nice try, runt!" Silver Wolf growled as he kicked off the ground, jumping backwards. There was no way he was letting Raptor in close range again! That Metsu Shoryuken was _nasty_ business. A blue charge appeared in the midst of the brown and white blur, alerting Silver Wolf.

"Shinku…"

"Grr…"

"Hadouken!"

Silver Wolf saw the bright ball fly at him from the left, but his mind this time was whirling. Raptor was going from side to side. Why was he trying to throw him off? That move only took a few seconds to charge and launch, though not fast enough to be a no-miss attack for a speedy character. But Silver Wolf didn't have that speed, so it was mostly luck that allowed him to dodge. 'Unless…'

All of his thoughts occurred in the split second it took between the Hadouken being launched and the bright ball of energy reaching him half way.

Silver Wolf turned to his right and ducked down, swinging out his leg in a sweeping kick in such a fashion that it looked like a break-dancing move. The kick caught a fast-moving Raptor right on his ankles, allowing him to see that the kid was in the position to try another Metsu Shoryuken. Priding himself on his quick deduction, he grabbed Raptor by his gi and flipped, causing Raptor to be hit by his own Shinku Hadouken.

The attack barely scratched Raptor, but the force behind it drove them backwards. After all seven surges were done, Silver Wolf let go of Raptor and kicked him in the back, knocking him into the dirt. Naturally, Raptor stood back up, but he looked at him with an almost… interested expression.

"So you can defeat structured power," Raptor mused. "But can you defeat stylish unpredictability?" With a yell, Rap hunched over as his gi began flowing in a sudden wind. To Silver Wolf's surprise, the gi turned from the pure white to a bright red, and the headband he was wearing magically disappeared. Raptor then stood up straight. With a grin, he lifted a thumb's up, which was quickly flipped to a thumb's down. "Show me whatcha got!"

Silver Wolf narrowed his eyes at Raptor's suddenly cockier attitude. Well, if he was gonna act like that, he'd get a show alright!

With a growl, Silver Wolf made the first move and lunged forward. Raptor leapt back to avoid the feral tackle, but Silver Wolf grinned as he shot Raptor with a few fireballs, causing him to fall backwards. Raptor managed to roll through the attack, retaliating with a triple kick to Silver Wolf's face. The two landed and jumped backwards from each other for a moment before he charged again. Raptor spun to the side, cupping his hands to his side.

Silver Wolf dug in his heels to stop and turned around as the sound of Raptor's Hadouken charging assaulted his ears. He smirked, holding out his hand to prepare a fireball.

"Hadouken!" Raptor roared, blasting the sphere from his hands. Silver Wolf's eyes widened considerably as the attack got much closer than he remembered. The fast attack hit him square in the chest, making him stumble backwards. He looked at Raptor with an incredulous expression, yelping as another Hadouken neared him. It was only a quick thought that he shot a fireball when it neared him, making it pop only a foot from his face.

"What _was_ that?! No way that was the same move!" he accused.

Raptor giggled in response. "New style. Not as much strength, but way more speed. Watch!" Raptor ran forward, lashing out with a rapid array of punches. Silver Wolf thanked his honed reflexes as he managed to just block every attack, swatting away his limbs before jumping back to gain distance.

Silver Wolf growled. Raptor was way too fast now. He didn't have the reflexes to keep blocking all of Raptor's fast punches and kicks, let alone that Hadouken. The only way he was going to do this now was to attack from long-range. He formed a fireball, launching it at Raptor from afar. Without even caring if they hit, he began to shoot out more and more, keeping Raptor dodging instead of advancing. The blue eyed martial-artist flipped, ducked, and jumped to avoid the rapid onslaught. The flames didn't bother him as much as they did while emulating Ryu's style, but they still hurt if they hit!

His eyes darted as he looked around for an opening. He swerved to the right, skidding to a stop when a trio of fireballs barely missed his face. He went back to the left, nearly tripping as a fireball exploded on the ground in front. These things were going everywhere…

Raptor was getting slightly ticked at Silver Wolf. He was being such a _noob_ right now, spamming his fireballs! Well, if the shotoclone dino was gonna get anywhere, he'd have to be a noob right back!

"Shoryuken!" he yelled, making sure he stayed close to the ground as he did the attack. Silver Wolf once again felt shock for what seemed like the thousandth time today as the red-clad dino went through a fireball unfazed.

With a slightly feral growl, Silver Wolf sped up the onslaught; however, with several calls of Shoryuken, Raptor not only managed to go through the attacks, but also closed the gap between the two. As the dino kept advancing, the incessant calls rang in Silver Wolf's ears.

"Shoryuken!" Silver Wolf's ears twitched, folding down to try and shut him out.

_Woosh!_

"Shoryuken!" A small growl started to form in the back of his throat.

_Fffsssh!_

"Shoryuken!" His flame-throwing fists began to clench tighter, turning his knuckles white. He felt a vein throb from all of Raptor's continuous shouting.

"Shoryuken!" His patience snapped like a twig.

"Shut up already!" Silver Wolf howled, blasting fireballs like a madman, adrenaline starting to burn in his veins. Raptor only smirked as he negated and dodged the mass of flames, getting ever closer with every punch. Soon, Raptor was right next to Silver Wolf, a wide grin on his face. He crouched down, and to Silver Wolf's surprise, flames surrounded the Velociraptor's fist. He hit the elemental prince in the gut before rising up for a second hit to his opponent's chin and finally leaping up, carrying Silver Wolf with him.

"SHORYUKEN!" the shotoclone yelled with passion, and the elemental prince was tossed back-first into the ground. Silver Wolf quickly got back to his feet and stared at Raptor, nearly at a loss for words.

"H-How did you get flames in that attack?" he asked, still trying to process what happened.

"Muffin button," was the dinosaur's stupid reply.

Silver Wolf face-faulted, dumbstruck by the absolute absurdity of his opponent's comment.

"Man, I liked you better in the white gi…" he muttered. Growling, he stood up. Well, if Raptor was gonna make a joke out of it, he'd make a joke out of him! He started blasting fireballs out, running forward as he threw the flaming spheres. Once he got in close, Silver Wolf flipped backwards, catching Raptor's chin with his heel. Raptor jerked up from the force, leaving him open for Silver Wolf to punch him hard in the stomach. Raptor doubled over slightly, groaning. He wouldn't say it out loud, but Silver Wolf had some power in those moves!

"A Flash Kick? Man, you trying to be Guile?" Raptor groaned, but the pain in his stomach subsided some. He then planted both of his feet into Silver Wolf's stomach and kick off of it, pushing the two opponents away from each other. When he landed, Raptor cupped his hands by his side, ready for the now oh-so-familiar attack. "Hadouken!" he yelled, firing off more of that blue energy. Silver Wolf rolled out of the way, but instantly met Raptor's ignited fist. "Shoryuken!" the shotoclone yelled as he lifted Silver Wolf into the air. At the peak of the attack, Raptor grinned. "Toasty~!" he abruptly said in a somewhat higher pitch.

Raptor landed on his feet as the elemental prince landed on his back.

"Guh…" Silver Wolf muttered under his breath. He was really getting tired of landing on his back. It was times like this that he wished he was more cat-like. Or at least had better training… He grunted as he worked his way to a stand, all the while not letting Raptor out of his sight. "Ok, ya runt. That was pretty good. But that ain't always gonna work!" He charged at Raptor, teeth bared. "Rah!"

Silver Wolf grabbed Raptor by the arm and elbowed him in the side of the head with his free arm, then slammed both of his fists into the kid's chest before leaping up to do a horizontal drill kick that knocked him over the edge of the canyon. It was only luck that Raptor managed to land on a small rock about two feet down.

Raptor smirked as he caught his breath. "This… Always works. Why the heck do you think it's top tier?" He leapt up at Silver Wolf, intending to pounce on him. However, the elemental prince grabbed Raptor in the air and threw him into a tree.

"Silly dino. Tiers are for queers!" The wolf quipped before following up with a fireball. Raptor managed to duck under the fireball before rolling close to Silver Wolf and delivering a vicious knee to the canine's stomach. He then grabbed his opponents shoulders and rolled back, taking him along. After a few cycles, Raptor threw out his foot, launching Silver Wolf.

'Not this time!' Silver Wolf thought to himself as he landed on all fours, kicking off with his foot to gain an additional burst of speed. Silver Wolf gathered flames in his fist and threw a punch, but Raptor countered with a sweeping low kick typical of shotoclones. Before the elemental prince could hit the ground, Rap leapt into the air and spun like a top, hitting Silver Wolf five times before the fire warrior was thrown back.

Quickly landing on the ground, Raptor dashed after Silver Wolf and followed with a trio of punches before using a standing uppercut that launched his opponent into the air. Raptor leapt after him and unleashed two hook punches and a kick before flames gathered in his fist.

"SHINRYUKEN!" the shotoclone warrior yelled as he corkscrewed into the air, leaving a spiraling trail of flames in his wake. Silver Wolf finally hit the ground after the brutal combo and quickly scrambled onto his feet.

He growled as he saw Raptor land and dash at him for another assault. Like that was going to happen! Silver Wolf suddenly shifted, bringing his right arm forward and his left arm back, his feet spread out in a diagonal direction.

"Haah YAH!" Silver Wolf brought his left arm up before swinging down, causing flames to erupt in a sphere from his body. The mass of flames acted just like a wall, causing Raptor to smack into it. The searing heat caused Raptor to yelp and kick off the sphere, and the dino didn't stop until he was sure he was out of range. He turned back to see the dome waver for a couple seconds before it vanished.

"Aw man! That was so cheap!" Raptor whined, dusting off his gi. "L-O-Z rip-off artist!"

Silver Wolf shook his head, this time knowing what Raptor meant.

"That was hardly even close to Din's Fire. That's offense. Mine is used for defense only. If you weren't running like a boy about to get paddled, you would've seen it didn't go very far beyond my body."

Raptor scowled at the tone Silver Wolf was using. It was the same level-headed-yet-teasing tone he heard from his older siblings. And boy was that a pain! Growling, he did a short hop and let out a thrusting kick that nailed Silver Wolf in the chest. Landing in front of the staggering wolf, Raptor lifted up his leg and quickly brought it down, impacting both Silver Wolf's head and foot.

The shotoclone thrust his hands forward, firing a Hadouken point blank into Silver Wolf's chest. Before the prince could recover, Raptor unleashed a flaming Shoryuken that lifted Silver Wolf off the ground again.

Silver Wolf growled, pushing down the pain. So, Raptor just thought he could get him with an anti-air combo?

"Not this time, brat!" Silver Wolf grabbed onto Raptor's arm with his tail and forced flames from his hands at high force. He grimaced at the pain of using so much power, but decided it was worth the risk. He lifted Raptor high into the sky with him before disengaging his flames. He relaxed his tail and grabbed him with his arms, pinning Raptor's hands behind his back, all in the split second at their highest point.

Once gravity kicked in, Silver Wolf pitched his body forward, pushing flames from his legs. Raptor was forced to follow his motion, and the two became a flaming wheel as they picked up speed. Silver Wolf timed his movements just right to cause them to land in a standing position. At the last second, he lifted his legs up, leaving Raptor's feet to absorb all the shock.

Raptor cried out as his bones and muscles strained from the force, some of the smaller ones cracking slightly. He fell onto the ground, hissing in pain as he massaged his aching ankles and feet, all the while glaring hellfire at Silver Wolf. Shakily, he stood back up, wincing as he tried to take a step. Silver Wolf gaped in shock. _How_ was that kid _standing_?!

"Dude… That was… Painful!" he yelped. "Good thing I have super tough legs… Ow!" He stood there, shaking his legs a couple times until the pain subsided enough.

All the while, Silver Wolf was silent, his shocked expression morphing into an amused one. 'I honestly don't know why I was so surprised… He _is_ a velociraptor… and the master of unpredictability… This is actually becoming… fun!'

Raptor leapt up into the air, spinning slightly before outstretching a leg to smash into Silver Wolf's head. Silver Wolf gasped out in pain from the harsh kick, holding the side of his head as he stumbled. Growling, he swung his leg up, causing Raptor to land on it in a rather… unpleasant fashion. Silver Wolf grinned, forgetting about the pain in his head for a moment to throw Raptor off of his leg, making the kid eat dirt.

Raptor moaned as he got up. That last attack HURT! He dusted himself off before firing a Hadouken at Silver Wolf. He then charged, leaping behind the wolf and kicking him in the back into the energy attack. Silver Wolf grunted as the somewhat weaker attack hit, causing him to fly back. Unfortunately, Raptor didn't know how far that would be, and Silver Wolf ended up landing right on top of him. Thankfully, Silver Wolf rolled off almost immediately, allowing Raptor to regain his footing.

That footing was immediately lost as Silver Wolf lashed out with a low kick, forcing Raptor to use his hands to spring backwards. Silver Wolf ran after Raptor, attempting to kick him around like a soccer ball. Raptor just managed to keep back until he got back against a tree. He was almost tempted to jump up said tree, but he knew that wasn't going to work. Instead, he stood his ground and swung his own leg, and their shins impacted each other like a couple of baseball bats.

"Youch!/Ow!" the two cried out simultaneously. Silver Wolf started hopping backwards. Raptor hissed as he gingerly massaged his shin before grinning at seeing Silver Wolf doing the same once he stopping hopping like a rabbit. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.

"Well, SW, if you think that stung…" he started ominously. He took off quick as a flash, reaching his opponent in less than a second.

"Whu—?!"

"This is _really_ gonna hurt!" Raptor said as he got close to Silver Wolf. Quicker than Silver Wolf could process, Raptor threw a kick that nailed the elemental prince in the chest. Then, he followed up with equally fast kicks, each one smashing into Silver Wolf's chest and stomach. Finally, he ended with a Senpuukyaku that caused him to fly upwards, kicking Silver Wolf the whole way.

Silver Wolf whimpered, struck with pain and unable to really do anything. The barrage of kicks was by far the worst pain he had been in during the fight. Raptor smirked, letting up on his kicks and landing gracefully on his feet. Silver Wolf fell into a large tree, smacking his side off of a branch before falling onto his stomach.

"Well…" Silver Wolf let out a cough. "At least… it wasn't… on my back…" he wheezed. He shakily stood up, steadying himself on the tree. He looked at Raptor, who was smirking wider than ever. Silver Wolf smirked back, holding his hand out, his fingers pointing up to the sky. "Nice job, Rap. But I've had some hidden tricks of my own. Like this! Blaze Stream!"

Pure red fire shot out in a stream from the prince's palm, setting the ground ablaze. The flames traveled like a snake, surrounding Raptor in a circle of heat much hotter than any of the fireballs and other fiery moves he had thrown at him.

"Dude! Ouch!" Raptor cried out, hopping around. He could feel the sweat on his forehead start to pop from how hot the flames were. "And this form _uses_ fire! That sucks!"

Silver Wolf laughed, even as his ribs throbbed in denial.

"Yep. It ain't a move I use very often. Way harder to control than ya think…" he let out a few more chuckles as Raptor tried to stay as close to the middle as he could, patting at his skin whenever a bead of sweat started to sizzle.

'This isn't good… The heat could actually kill me,' Raptor thought to himself. Silver Wolf must've forgotten. While he did have sweat glands like a human, he was still a reptile, and didn't sweat as much, and was more easily subject to heat stroke than a mammal. He took to the skies with a bounding leap, sailing into a tree branch. There wasn't much more he could do right now… Except for one final trick.

He leapt off the branch towards another tree, rebounding off the bark so he would land a foot in front of Silver Wolf. As soon as he hit the ground, he rolled so that he could close that small gap between them. The moment he was directly in front of the elemental prince, he released a new attack.

"Shoryu Reppa!" he yelled, doing a small Shoryuken, quickly followed by a stronger one, and finishing with a flaming Shoryuken that brought the two into the air one final time.

Once Raptor released, Silver Wolf kicked off of Raptor's chest. He shot flames from his boots, wincing in slight pain as he flew at a tree. He grabbed the branch behind him and started to spin around the branch like a wheel on its axle. He gained speed from his rocket flare, letting go once he gained enough momentum. He flew off of the tree, catching Raptor in mid-landing with the side of his unhurt leg.

Raptor flashed out his claws and windmilled his arms, using his instincts to save himself by digging a tunnel to keep to from crashing. He quickly dug his way back up, almost shooting out of the ground. The small dino took a moment to catch his breath until he was distracted by Silver Wolf whistling. He turned and frowned at his opponent, who was standing on a boulder like he was surfing, waving his hand in a 'come on' gesture.

"Hey! I'm the only one who can act all cool like that!" he shouted, shaking his fist. Silver Wolf said nothing, merely waiting. 'Oh, so now he thinks he has a game plan, huh? Well, I'll show him!'

Raptor ran at Silver Wolf, already figuring what to do. Silver Wolf knew all of the moves he could use, and had a counter for almost all. But there was one move he had yet to counter! And it was the perfect one!

He leapt on top of the rock, crouching down. His fist lit aflame as he torqued his body, ready for a spiraling jump. However, as he made his ascent, Silver Wolf did something that completely stunned him. The wolf's eyes widened, but instead of jumping, he leaned backwards, like he was in a limbo game. Raptor sailed over as his opponent continued to bend, stopping when he couldn't go further.

"A Matrix dodge?! W-T-H, man?!" Raptor yelled out. Silver Wolf leaned forward to a standing position before jumping up, rocketing slightly to close the three foot gap between them. Raptor felt Silver Wolf grab onto his legs, spinning along with him as he performed the Shinyruken. As soon as they stopped, Silver Wolf grinned dangerously. Raptor gulped. "Oh boy…"

"Take this!" Silver Wolf let out a primal roar as he served up his strength into his arms, throwing Raptor down with as much might as he could muster. Raptor smacked off the rock and bounced along the ground several times, imitating a rock skipping across a lake. The force drove the air out of his lungs, leaving him unable to recover properly. "Ha! How was that?!"

Silver Wolf felt like he had won the lottery. Raptor was an incredible opponent, annoying as he was. To beat him like this was definitely an accomplishment. Even as Raptor caught his breath and stood, he had a feeling he was the victor.

Raptor was about to prove him wrong once again.

"Dang… You countered structured power and stylish unpredictability… I have to use it! Overwhelming fury!" Rap hunched over and yelled again, but the wind blew much more harshly than before. His gi darkened from bright red to eerie crimson before finally becoming pitch black, and an aura as red as blood began to drip off of his form.

He looked up, his eyes narrowed in a sinister fashion, a feral grin marring his childish features.

"Prove to me your worth!"

* * *

Charity frowned at Edge from the midst of her afterimage circle, hoping he'd start attacking soon. Any minute now, her leg muscles would cramp up. She'd been doing this for about three minutes by now. But all he was doing was standing there with his eyes closed! Was he seriously playing the waiting game?

'C'mon… attack already!' she mentally groaned, feeling the acid buildup start in her calves. If he didn't do something, she would've wasted her energy for nothing! Then, Edge's eyes suddenly snapped open as he called out a new attack.

"Rapid Fire!" Edge hollered, soon spinning his sword like a possessed baton twirler, not giving Charity any time to react as white bolts of energy shot out from the blade. He twisted on the ball of his foot, sending the energy all around him. Charity was forced to abandon her tactic and gain some distance. She snarled as her furry ears pressed against her head. This battle was getting frustrating! Where was he pulling out all those tricks anyway?!

But that didn't mean she didn't have her own…

Edge smirked as he eyed Charity, who was sinking into a fighting stance. He waved his sword around a little bit, showing off flagrantly.

"Nice, eh?" he stated, his elongated tail wagging slightly. "My Soul Powers are quite unique. And what I've shown you is just the tip of the iceberg." His smirk became more confident as he focused on his blade, leveling the point at Charity. "So, are you gonna admit defeat? Or will I have to knock you out so I can hopefully win and watch you do 500 push-ups?"

"You're gonna be the one with your face in the dirt, smartass!" Charity hissed, lunging forward and throwing several more discs, this time much faster than before, not giving Edge ample time to dodge.

"Grah!" he howled, dropping to a knee as four of them impacted his torso. Searing pain exploded in his muscles as blood dripped out of the shallow gashes, staining his shirt and the rock below with crimson teardrops. Edge growled lowly, focusing on Charity to reduce the pain to a dull throb. He plucked out the discs and put the bloodied weapons in his dagger pouch, slightly reducing Charity's chances of hurting him more. Charity scowled as she eyed her damaged opponent. She had to admit that Edge was a good warrior. He had decent combat skills, good stamina, and apparently a good range of Soul Power moves. But she had to wonder what else he had up his sleeve.

'Whatever the case, this canyon is too open. We need a change of scenery… But how?' She wondered. She couldn't run off; that'd seem like a coward's act. She'd have to get Edge to run or something. Using her feline reflexes, she jumped up onto the wall and hopped to the rocks, staring Edge down.

The snow-white hedgehog dusted off his arms and legs as he stared up at Charity. What was she planning now? He made sure to keep his sword at the ready in case she had some other moves he'd have to deflect. He soon got his answer as Charity leapt off the ledge, gracefully landing and flipping off of another rock. She displayed excellent jumping power as she spanned the width of the canyon. Edge blinked in surprise as he realized Charity was climbing the canyon with minimal effort. But why? He had gotten a good hit on her wings, so she wouldn't be flying…

'Oh, crap, guess I was wrong!' Edge thought to himself as Charity took a leap into the air, flapping her long wings in warning before she suddenly dove down at a speed almost matching Sonic's most common running speed, which of course was still faster than any car.

He then yelped as Charity changed direction just feet above the ground and spun around as the wind rushed by him. With incredible force, she landed a successful spiraling dive-bomb on Edge.

Edge gasped as he buckled under the force, losing his sword as he was practically launched to the edge of the canyon. Pain shot up his spine as he slid along the ground, causing all manner of rocks to slice into his back, further ruining one of his shirts as blood trailed in front of him.

'Man…! This is… brutal!' he thought, unable to speak or yell from where the wind was knocked out of his lungs. He skidded to a stop, grimacing and whimpering as he stood up, glaring through hazy eyes at his opponent. "Heh… I gotta admit… You're good…"he managed, slowly managing to stand up. "But I'm not done yet!" Edge closed his eyes as he pulled on his energy, feeling it flow through his body like a river. "Element Flare!"

Edge began to feel the energy around him coalesce into a bubble of pure power, growling as he tried to gain as much as he could. He let out a short, loud growl as the bubble shrunk around him, almost like a second skin. It soon faded and Edge smirked.

Charity blinked as Edge flexed and stretched without even a slight wince. It was as if whatever he did healed all his wounds!

'No, he's still bleeding… It's more like… He made his body tougher. Like a shot of adrenaline or something…' she frowned as she settled into a fighting stance. 'Just means I'll have to hurt him all over again.'

Edge grinned as he felt himself get renewed with energy. The soreness in his muscles mostly faded, but it'd be back later. Thinking fast, he rushed at Charity, making to grab at his blade. Charity, though, saw that coming. She twirled around and landed her foot right in Edge's forehead, making him stumble back.

The white hedgehog scowled and growled as white spots overtook his vision. Gnashing his teeth, he made to jump, surprise writing itself on his face when his balance decided to disappear. Edge's face met the dirt, eliciting a wince from the hedgehog. He lifted his head up and turned to see what he tripped on, when he saw a clawed hand wrapped around the base of his tail.

"What the—?!" Edge yelped as Charity leapt up, causing his tailbone to lift with her. Soon, he was suspended in the air. Charity's flapping wings seemed almost deafening in his ears as gravity caused more pressure on the base of his tail. He bit back a few whimpers as he dangled; it felt like his own body was trying to tear itself away!

"Ready to go for a spin, Edge?" Charity cooed mockingly, causing Edge to gasp. Charity smirked, spinning around in midair rapidly as she held onto Edge's long tail. The scenery around them started to blur as their bodies rotated, and Edge shut his eyes as his stomach decided it didn't like the centrifugal force. Without warning, Edge felt the hold on his tail release, and the wind began to rush by him.

He cracked open his eyes to see himself passing over the trees, which were getting quite close.

'Never thought I'd hafta use this move to actually save myself…' he thought with a grimace. "Meo Twister!" As the words left his lips, a pink aura surrounded his body, fueling him with energy. Instinctively, he angled his body to stand straight up as he spun around, this time the way he was used to. The pink aura began to flare and form a ring around him, causing him to slow down. 'Alright, that's enough. Don't need to go through the whole attack just to catch myself.'

Edge kept the power from rising any higher, using the rotation and updraft of energy to eventually land safely. He landed on his two feet gracefully, turning around to see his new location. The trees towered around him, branches weaving around each other and bunches of leaves forming thickets in the canopy. Sunlight very sparingly dotted the ground, leaving most of the ground obscured in shadow. It was perfect territory for hiding out.

Thinking fast, he darted behind a tree. He peered around, waiting for any sign of Charity's approach. He held his sword at the ready, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in the base of his tail. He couldn't let himself get distracted now!

* * *

Sonic let out a sigh of relief when he saw the gate. He made it to the edge with plenty of time to spare. Now, he just had to find the infirmary wing…

"OI! What's the big rush?" a voice called out. Sonic blinked in surprise as he saw the teacher standing about seven feet from the gate, his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. It was a strange change of posture for the seemingly brutish crocodile. But his trained eye could tell that he had straightened up in the middle of his sentence. "Hey, Blue Boy, what's going on?"

"Ahh…" Kazo grunted, trying to move. "Shot my nerves…"

At that, Mr. Bustyerbutt's face morphed into an expression of understanding. He gave a curt nod, jerking his thumb to the east wing.

"Infirmary's thataway. But you better get your furry tail back here for judging in case your team loses! You ain't getting out of push-ups for bein' a hero, Sonic!" With that, the croc had returned to the same mood he was in at the start of class. Sonic gave a nod before running off.

"I expected as much! See you at the end of class!" he called back. When he turned around, he completely missed the dumbstruck yet proud expression of the gym teacher.

* * *

Shark sighed to himself as he continued on his way after saving Natalia, wincing ever so slightly as pain continued to poke at his body. Really, it was only his lower arms and his torso, but the pain rippled through the rest of his body. It was like a rock being tossed into a lake.

'Though in this case it's more like a boulder… Bakuda is too good. Stupid Saiyan powers…'

Taking a deep breath to buffer the soreness, he trudged over to a shady tree and sat down.

"Commence diagnostic. All," he said out loud, causing a screen to pop up on his visor.

"_Scanning…_ _Armor has suffered fifty-seven percent damage. Vambraces are no longer functional. Active Camouflage disabled."_

Shark sighed.

'Great…' "How long until my Heal Orb is fully charged?"

The computer purred, calculating his response.

"_Estimating. Three minutes to complete charge… Error. Heal Orb has suffered heat damage from move: Kamehameha. Can only heal sixty percent of all injuries."_

Shark wanted to throw his head back against the tree. This was _not_ his day. But wait…

"Hang on. My armor's pretty banged up, yeah, but I'm just in a little pain. Surely it can heal more than that."

Another purr. Shark was quite glad the computer could easily pick out key words from his dialogue.

"_Negative. Bakuda's moves have caused several internal injuries unnoticed due to high adrenaline levels. Scan shows ten broken bones and five ruptured muscles. Proportional repairs will still leave two bones, one muscle, and thirty percent of armor unrepaired."_

"Just. Freaking. Great," Shark sighed sarcastically, this time actually going through with his idea of slamming his head against the tree. This was not looking as good as he hoped. On the plus side, his naturally high adrenaline would buffer most of the pain from his muscle and bones. So technically, it would be as if they weren't even damaged. Shark whistled a tune, not really caring if anyone was listening.

"Hey!"

Shark shot up in surprise as a voice suddenly came out of nowhere. He was quick to go into a fighting stance, wincing slightly from his injuries. He turned his body from side to side, looking for the source of the voice. He tried to make his own reply sound authoritative.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

A rich, accented chuckle soon pervaded the area. Shark blinked in surprise before his gaze narrowed.

"I recognize that accent. Siegfried. Where are you?!"

"Easy, Shark," Siegfried said calmly as he stepped out from the trees to Shark's right, holding his hands out in what was hopefully a passive gesture. "I don't hurt injured opponents. Relax." Shark seemed to calm down slightly as he stood up straight, crossing his arms as he eyed the sand-colored wolf.

"Uh huh… What are you doing here?" Shark demanded. Siegfried was a good guy as far as he was concerned, but it was hard to say how he'd act as an opponent in this game. Siegfried shrugged with a grin.

"Looking for the flag, I guess. Don't see how I'll find it, though… So who have you been fighting?"

"Bakuda."

Siegfried let out another chuckle. "Ah. The kid Raptor embarrassed. What's he again? A… Saiyan?"

Shark chuckled, feeling a bit more relaxed. Only thirty seconds left. "Yeah. Tails told me some of the story. Looks like a human, but they have really tiny irises and monkey tails. And they have powers that make Super Sonic look pathetic at best." At that, Siegfried paled slightly. He knew all the stories of Sonic's heroics and his powerful Super Form. Could something really be that strong?

"I see… wow…" he muttered, more than a little unnerved. His fear was suddenly alleviated by a distracting beep. He turned to Shark, who wore a smirk under his helmet. His eyes widened as Shark threw up a cylinder with a glowing blue liquid in it. Shark then raised a fist, causing the orb to burst open upon contact. The blue liquid splattered over his body before it began to glow a little more brightly and shift around. Siegfried could only watch in amazement as the substance soon covered all of Shark's body before it started to sink in.

After about another minute of this, he could see things happening in Shark's armor. Cracks started to disappear, and dents seemed to pop back out. But strangely, it focused more on his arm guards and less on his torso. Soon, Shark started moving again, showing that he was done. Siegfried could tell he was still hurt in some spots, but nowhere near as much as before. He cocked his head to the side in silent wonder.

"That, my friend, was a Heal Orb. Bakuda sorta damaged it, but it still did pretty good, eh?" Shark said with a smirk. Siegfried gave a nod before smirking himself.

"Indeed. So, what next?" Shark instantly caught the tone. The hidden message was quite clear: 'Well, now that you're all healed up, you up for another battle?' Shark raised an eye ridge in response, hoping to make it obvious even through his mask.

"Dunno… Guess I'll just go look for the flag. But that sounds a little boring…" Shark said in mock thought. In other words, it was his way of saying: 'Challenge accepted.' Their smirks turned into wild grins as they walked backwards from each other.

The two started a mental countdown as they walked. 'Five… four… three… two… one!'

Shark and Siegfried darted forward each other, ready to give the other a right hook. Shark leaned to his left and ducked when they got close to each other, hitting Siegfried square in the gut. Siegfried grunted slightly but continued his own punch, aiming down and whaling Shark in the side of the head, sending him rolling off to the side.

Shark grinned, barely affected by the hit as he stopped his roll and stood back up, taking a couple strides to lash out with a sweeping kick. Siegfried merely jumped over the kick and leaned back to drop-kick Shark's armored leg. The force was enough to make a small crack in the armor. While that didn't cause any pain, the fact that his armor was cracked was surprising in and out of itself. Shark was quick to go back into his stance for a split second before lunging forward, grappling Siegfried around the waist. He then made a large bound, releasing the wolf at the point where the force was greatest.

The result caused Siegfried to be basically thrown through the air before he landed on his back and skidded across the dirt. Shark grinned at his handiwork, but his grin quickly fell as Siegfried merely flipped himself back up and dusted off the back of his pants.

"Not back, Shark. That'll take a couple of washings to get clean."

Scowling at the remark, Shark grabbed a CDO and activated it, pulling out a laser gun.

"Take this, then, tough guy!" Shark pulled the trigger, shooting out small pellets of energy. Siegfried blinked in surprise but started running from left to right, doing his best to avoid the lasers and confuse Shark's perception. While physical damage was no big deal, laser fire was a completely different story for Siegfried. Those things could _hurt_.

Unfortunately, Shark was a good shot, even with moving targets, and he landed a few blows to his torso.

Siegfried groaned in pain as he clutched at his torso, seeing a few black spots where the lasers penetrated his shirt and hit his skin. He leveled a glare at Shark as he tried to drown out the pain. Thankfully, Shark made it a point to not hit any sensitive or vital areas. Shark tossed the now empty laser gun off to the side, going back into battle mode. After giving him time to breath, Shark suddenly ran forward again. This time, Siegfried couldn't react that well, so he was able to get in a nasty kick to the wolf's forehead. He then followed up with a spin kick, knocking him into a tree.

Shaking off the attack, Siegfried bounded back and drove his fist into Shark's gut, lifting him up with the force. Shark coughed as the fist actually managed to go through his weakened armor and make contact with skin. Effectively knocking the wind out of him, Siegfried threw his hand out, sending Shark a couple of feet through the air. He then grabbed the hybrid's leg and spun around on his heels. After about ten rotations, he let go. Shark was launched through the air, gasping for air as he slid along the ground. Never had he been more grateful for his awesome armor.

'Geez… What is that guy made of?' he wondered as he got back up. At least for now, Siegfried only landed one painful hit. Still, this was the craziest fight he'd ever been in. He had to wonder what type of moves he had up his sleeve. Soon, he heard Siegfried approaching from his left. This time, though, he was wielding a large staff. Shark grinned dangerously as Siegfried swung. 'Too easy.' He held out his right hand, blocking the staff with his vambrace. He shifted around, blocking each strike with the toughened steel.

"Heh…" Siegfried grinned, panting only slightly with the exertion. "That armor's some tough stuff. I can see why you decided to wear it." He then started twirling the bo staff like a baton, then quickly stopped and delivered a downward blow, cracking it against Shark's left shin. The force did little more than push Shark's leg back. Smirking as he got an idea, he then thrust the staff forward into the hole left by his fist.

Shark leapt back to protect his new weak spot and then kicked upwards, knocking the staff out of Siegfried's hands before yanking off his chain. He then used his chain like a whip, sending the links upward to crack against the staff. Metal overpowered wood and snapped the staff in half. Siegfried pouted.

"Scheiße… That was my best staff!"

Shark chuckled, waving his chain slightly to taunt him.

"That makes the second toy I've broken today. First Shadow's tank, now your staff. Got anything else for me to break in half?"

Siegfried snarled, going right for the big guns and pulling out his sword. His _real_ sword. Shark hissed. That… was bad. Kevlar wasn't made to handle that. Siegfried ran and swung the blade at Shark, aiming for any small gap in his armor that he could find. In response, Shark began to jump backwards, trying to keep his distance. While he knew Siegfried wasn't going to literally try and cut off a limb, he still preferred to play it safe. Besides, a gash left by that thing would still hurt like an s-o-b for quite a while.

Siegfried then quickly switched tactics, turning the sword sideways in his hand. This time he swung, smacking the flat of the blade against Shark's armored head. The resulting clang was so loud that Shark actually winced, which was all the reaction Siegfried needed to put him in a Full Nelson. Upon discovering he was caught in what was his opinion the cheapest wrestling move, Shark let out a flurry of curses as he tried to shake Siegfried off.

"Nothing doing, Shark!" the wolf chuckled, holding on easily like an experienced bull fighter. Shark hissed before jumping up and leaning backwards, slamming Siegfried's back into the dirt. Siegfried grunted slightly but again showed no real pain, even as Shark reared his head forward then backward to smash his jaw. Shark was starting to get incredibly frustrated. Then, in a moment of inspiration, he suddenly smirked as he pressed a button on his arm.

Within seconds, the gravity around Shark began to increase, causing him to put more pressure on Siegfried's ribs. While he was strong, it seemed dealing with pressure changes wasn't something he was used to. Gasping as he was finding it a little more difficult to breathe, he released his hold. Shark chuckled as he turned off his Armor Lock. He stomped on Siegfried's chest for good measure before bouncing off. Siegfried stood back up and slightly twisted his body to build up some tension. He then gave a mighty spin, sticking the edge of his elbow out to deliver a strike against Shark's head.

Shark blinked and then gave a deadpan expression as a nice little crack appeared in his visor.

"Nice. Really nice," he said with all the sarcasm he had to give. "You're little kickboxing move there's gonna make me spend an hour working." He then dropped his sarcasm to yell. "Do you realize just how freaking hard it was to make this suit!? If this wasn't part of the competition I'd be making you pay for the damages!"

Siegfried blinked in surprise as Shark's wrath hit him like a small wave. Half-hearted it may have been, it was still rather unpleasant. He then made a mental note to not get the hybrid fully angry. While he would've been fine, he didn't want to see what would happen to anyone else who Shark decided to take it out on. Suppressing the urge to shudder, he then ran at a nearby tree. Shark raised an eye-ridge in confusion before the guy ran _up_ the tree a ways and leapt off of it, much like Sonic tended to do. Stretching his foot out, Siegfried basically did some sort of flying kick intent on hitting his chest.

Shark grabbed the leg as he ducked out of range, throwing Siegfried over his shoulder before tackling him. In just a couple of seconds, Shark got Siegfried in a very effective leg lock. Siegfried then swung his other foot in retaliation, hitting Shark in his ribs. Fortunately, the wolf didn't have a good range to land any good hit. Shark managed to hold on while Siegfried tried to roll around and squirm his way out. Shark felt his body get rattled by each bump they made as the two rolled along.

The hybrid grunted in discomfort as they rolled into some large roots and whatnot, but both of them were incredibly stubborn and resilient. Soon, though, when the two soon felt sandier territory, the slick ground enabled Siegfried to finally break Shark's hold. Panting from the exertion, Siegfried stood up and saw that they were at a lake. Upon seeing Shark was on his stomach, he got a wicked idea. If it worked, he'd gain an edge for his next move. He took two long steps and grabbed Shark's arms before he could get up. Grunting with minimal effort, he swung Shark over his shoulders and slammed him onto his back.

Shark coughed from the sudden force against the back of his lungs, unable to react as he was suddenly swung again, this time landing on his stomach. Siegfried then lazily tossed Shark far into the water. He then stood there with his arms crossed. If his theory worked right, he'd see Shark's fin right before he surfaced, which would give him a chance to get in a few good hits.

Meanwhile, in the water, Shark shook himself back to his senses. His hidden blue eyes glowered at the surface of the water, where Siegfried was waiting. He started to swim up to the surface, when he suddenly realized Siegfried's idea. Slowly, a grin stretched across his face. But this smile was about as sweet as a… well, shark's. His eyes gained an almost evil glint as he started swimming, his razor-sharp teeth poking out from the intensity of his smirk. He swam straight forward, picking up speed as he headed for the submerged coast.

Siegfried frowned, crossing his arms as he stared out at the lake. It didn't really matter how long he waited though. Eventually, Shark would come out, and when he did, he'd get clobbered. His muscles almost seemed to twitch in anticipation. He actually was finding it hard to say he didn't like this. Daresay, he was _loving_ this battle! Shark was an excellent opponent. He would have to do this again sometime… He watched carefully, hearing the sound of water moving slightly.

He settled into a fighting stance as he waited. What happened next, however, was far from what he expected. Shark somehow _porpoise dove through the ground_, resulting in his defenses being broken. Shark then punched Siegfried in the face, _hard_. He then followed with his other fist, making white spots flash in the wolf's vision as Shark grabbed him and lifted him up. He then fell backwards, bringing Siegfried with him. A classic suplex, Siegfried realized. Shark then seamlessly stood up and repeated it.

'A double suplex!? I never even heard of such a thing!' he thought in surprise before Shark suddenly jumped up with Siegfried still in his grip. 'What the hell?!'

Shark grinned as he suddenly turned and span around like a drill as they fell back down to earth. Shark leapt off at the last millisecond as Siegfried's spinning form was slammed into the ground, head-first. The spinning force was actually a saving grace. Blunt force was much worse, in the wolf's opinion. Shaking and twitching as he struggled to regain his senses, he pulled his head out from the very slight indentation they left. He had to admit, Shark had a good jump. That was about five feet or so!

Standing up, he tossed his sheathe to the side, finally deciding weapons weren't going to cut it. Neither were his fists. His strongest punches and kicks were only working on the weakened parts of Shark's armor. Then there was the fact that Shark knew fully well of where his weak spots were. To top it off, the guy had some wicked wrestling moves of his own.

'He's no MMA fighter, but the guy has skills,' he thought to himself, panting as he tried to regain his energy. 'The only way either of us will win…'

'…The only way either of us will win…' Shark thought as he stared down Siegfried.

'Is if one of us passes out from exhaustion…' the two unknowingly thought in tandem. 'So be it!'

"That… was a cheap move, Shark," Siegfried said once he stopped panting. Shark, in turn, scowled.

"Oh, and like your Full Nelson wasn't cheap_er_?" he asked, putting extra emphasis on the 'er.' At that, Siegfried settled into a different fighting stance. Shark immediately recognized it as a Tae Kwon Do stance. He smirked, crouching low as Siegfried went for a running charge. Siegfried smirked, thrusting his right hand out with his fingers curled before raising his hand up in a sweeping motion. 'A Palm Heel?!' Shark yelped in his mind. Armor or not, if that move hit his chin, it could pop his freaking neck!

However, Siegfried displayed an odd way of thinking as he made a Spear Hand with his left. He ducked down to try and avoid the attack when he felt the Spear Hand jab at the base of his helmet. His eyes widened ever so slightly as Siegfried detached the latch with the Spear Hand and whaled on the top of his helmet with the Palm Heel. In three seconds, Shark watched as his helmet flew off and bounce across the ground. Now, Siegfried could see Shark's blue eyes narrow in anger.

"Bastard!" Shark roared, throwing up a Ridge Hand into Siegfried's crotch. Siegfried, in spite of his extreme toughness, yelped and stumbled back, bending slightly for a few seconds.

"OK… That… was cheap…" he grunted, shaking it off after about ten seconds. Shark, however, didn't really seem to care. "Y'know, most people would at least have wide eyes. Have you even_ blinked_ in shock during this whole battle?"

Shark shrugged. "I was mildly surprised with your resistance, but I don't get impressed with much of anything."

Siegfried crossed his arms and raised an amused eye-ridge. He knew that in a fight, you weren't supposed to let yourself get surprised, but it sounded as if nothing in _life_ surprised the hybrid. Shaking the thought, he slid into his fighting stance. Shark did the same, keeping his eyes locked on Siegfried's. He wasn't sure who was gonna win, but he knew their fight was going to end very soon. His cerulean gaze narrowed. There was no way he'd let Siegfried be the winner! If anyone was getting out of there a winner, it was him!

Letting out a growl as his only warning, Shark rushed forward to start the final onslaught. Shark lashed out with a horizontal karate chop. Siegfried swung his own arm, intercepting it. Siegfried made to kick Shark, but Shark drove his other hand down into the knee. As Shark pushed the wolf's leg down, he in turn jumped up and kicked at Siegfried's chest. Siegfried jumped to the right, breaking away from where he was pushing on Shark's hand with his own. Shark growled himself, jumping back as he struggled to come up with something. What was he going to do, though? The guy had gotten out of everything unscathed!

'Wait just a laser-shooting minute,' he thought as he realized something. His super strength! He grinned dangerously as he turned to a decently sized pine sapling growing at the edge of the forest. It was about thirty feet high and around two feet thick at the base. 'Perfect.' Siegfried blinked as Shark walked over to it, seeming to be without a care in the world. He raised an eye-ridge in question.

The eye-ridge was quickly joined by another as Shark's arms suddenly encircled the trunk and began to _pull_.

"What the—"

Shark grunted slightly as he felt the ground shift. Dirt began to trickle. Roots slowly started coming up out of the ground, losing their grip in the bedrock. A creaking sound echoed from the base of the tree as more and more was removed. Soon, a large clump of dirt started to rise out as the tree was fully separated from the earth holding it. Siegfried stood shock still, his eyes being the only thing that moved as he followed the action. Shark lifted the large tree above his head, glaring hellfire at his victim. In three seconds, Shark twirled the tree upside down and grasped the narrower end, making the tree look for all the world a giant, leafy, baseball bat.

True to form, Shark leaned back and held the tree in a batter's position. Siegfried was too overcome with shock to realize what was going to happen next. His mind was still transfixed on what Shark had done. Even though his healing ability rendered Shark's attacks useless, the sheer strength and stamina were unreal! Heck, even Siegfried could only lift up about two-hundred pounds! But that thing had to be almost two _tons_!

'Just what kind of training has he done?!' the wolf yelped mentally as a shock passed through his system, making his fur stand on edge for a split second.

Shark grinned.

'One…' He shifted his stance. 'Two.' He swung the tree like a bat with all the strength he could muster. 'Three.' Contact.

Siegfried couldn't even _cough_ as over three-thousand pounds of wood slammed into his body with incredible force, making him a living baseball as he was sent forward. While he was in no real pain, the shock from the impact rendered his lungs useless for a few seconds. His legs and arms bowed out in front of him as he flew backwards, both sets of limbs kept parallel to the ground. It only took another three seconds for another force to hit him from behind. Siegfried felt the wind leave him again as a nauseating crunch echoed in his ears. Bark flew off and pulp splintered outward, jabbing outward from his body. He rapidly slowed down in that split second, letting inertia do its best to inflict damage on his body.

The sand-colored wolf gasped as he tried to get oxygen back into his system. His lungs burned as they filled up, but the pain went away as quickly as it came. In milliseconds, he could tell he was stuck in the tree he'd been slammed into. Thankfully, the force was too great to allow any chunks to slice into his body. Although he had an intense healing ability, infection was not quite in the realm of possibility. Growling, he wiggled his limbs and tried to escape the tangled strands of sap-coated pulp. Soon, it gave way, allowing him to hop out of the depression he made. Once his boots hit solid ground, he glared hellfire at Shark.

Shark scowled as he went into his stance for the last time.

'This is getting ridiculous. Not even that fazed him… I gotta get him in a weak spot…' While Siegfried could withstand a beating that would probably kill anyone else, he was, in theory, just as susceptible to knockout moves like a pinch to his veins or a good blow to the skull. But how was he going to get there? He needed to make a totally precise and accurate hit to do that, and that wolf was nothing to joke about. Siegfried copied Shark's scowl as he started walking.

His pace quickly went from a walk to a full-out run at over eighty miles an hour as he charged. It wasn't very dignified, but Siegfried didn't care anymore. He threw caution to the wind and rushed out, crouching slightly to deliver an elbow charge.

'I'll make you pay for that, Shark! I'm gonna hit you so hard you'll feel like you kissed a freaking freight train!' Letting out a howl that his wild, non-anthro counterparts would be proud of, he made to carry out his attack. Shark displayed an unusual way of thinking as he jumped backwards, almost as if wanting the wolf to build up speed. Siegfried, for once, allowed his inbred instincts to take over and threw out all sense of logic.

Bad move.

Shark then stopped and leaned forward, pushing on Siegfried's arm. He let loose on gravity and actually used the force to vault over Siegfried's body. He crouched low and swiftly lashed out, looking like a break dancer as he spun around and clipped Siegfried's ankle with his booted foot. His opponent let out a yelp as he fell forward, but Shark stopped his fall.

Siegfried snapped back to reality as he realized what he got himself into. Shark now had a hold of his furry tail, just keeping his face from impacting the somewhat gravelly coast. That did it. Siegfried was going to finish this, _now_! Snarling, he threw out his arms and pushed himself up with great force. He turned in his ascent to lash out, punching Shark in his exposed gut. Shark coughed, his eyes slightly widening from the force as he was forced to let go of his tail. Siegfried grinned and followed up with another punch. Shark groaned, moving to grab his now sore abdomen as he bent over.

'Fat chance,' the wolf thought as he then performed an uppercut that packed enough power to launch him up into the air. Shark groaned, disoriented and in severe pain. He couldn't stop himself from tilting backwards in midair, even though he was yelling at himself to do so. Soon, the upward force was gone, leaving him floating in the sky, about ten feet above the ground and Siegfried. But it only lasted for two seconds. Gravity was no longer outmatched and Shark started his involuntary descent.

Siegfried blinked in shock as Shark fell. His… his plan… it worked?! If he didn't need to focus, he would've jumped for joy at this massive turnaround. Shaking his thoughts, he waited for a couple seconds. 'Seven… six… five feet… now.' Siegfried went right under Shark, crouching.

"Sorry for this, buddy!" he called. Shark watched—as it was the only thing he could do—as the wolf jumped up. It wasn't a real jump, more like a small hop. Then Siegfried swung his right leg up, aligning his knee with the top of his skull. Shark felt no pain as his skull was clipped, only aware of the fact that his vision was swimming. Siegfried sighed in relief as he landed, supporting his downed opponent in his arms.

'Great…' Shark managed to think. 'I'm done… I can't believe he knocked me unconscious…' Strangely, though, the blackness pulsing at the edge of his vision wasn't growing. He was only borderline unconscious. He couldn't move his limbs, and he felt numb, but his senses were slightly working. Soon, he felt that the brightness around him lowered. He managed to make out the shapes of leaves as he was set up against a tree.

"I have a feeling you won't be able to do anything else, so I think it's best if you stay here. That way I can retrieve you when the game's over. But that was an amazing fight, Shark! We really should do that again sometime." He smiled and walked off, casting the occasional glance. At the final glance, Siegfried chuckled richly as Shark managed to scowl. He wasn't gonna live this down. No, he would get even with that wolf. But he couldn't help but agree. Between Bakuda and Siegfried, Shark realized he had something to gain from all this after all.

'Still doesn't mean I'm not pissed off,' he thought, unable to speak out loud.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter's already in progress, so just hang tight! Here's what you can expect:

Akuma-style Raptor vs. Silver Wolf

More of Edge vs. Charity

Hanyou and Envy vs. Bolt

After-school situations

The next day of school

…and more!


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